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THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 




From the original in possession of his niece, Mrs.W, M. R French, of Chicagoi. 



THt; Martyrdom of Loviijoy. 



AN ACCOUNT 

OF THE 

LIFE, TRIALS, AND PERILS 

OF REV. 

HlijahP Jovejoy 

WHO WAS 

KILLED BY A PRO -SLAVERY MOB, 

AT 

Alton, III., on the Night of November 7, 1837. 
BY AN EY]<:-WITNESS. 



If I, xny lord, for my opinion 'bleed. 

Opinion, sliall t>e surgeoix to my liurt. 

And keep me on ttxe side -wliero tstill I aiii. 

Henky VI, Act 2, Scene 4. 



u^h 



16 1^ h Ox 
CHICAGO: 
FERGUS PRIN'l'ING COMPANY, 
1881. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by 

Fergus Printing Company, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



6?/' 



TO 

WINTHROP S. OILMAN, 

NOW OF NEW -YORK CITY, 

A Resident of Alton, in 1837, who Ordered his Warehouse to be 
Opened for the Reception of the Last Press of Mr. Lovejoy; 

to 

The Few now Living who were my other Associates in the 

Building on the Night of the Lovejoy Riot; 

AND TO 

The Memory of Those of our Number who have 

Gone to their Rest 

These Pages are Feelingly 

DEDICATED. 

Buffalo, N.Y., 1881. HENRY TANNER. 



INTRODUCTION 



It has seemed desirable, to many of my friends, that I, 
who was somewhat intimately associated with the Christian 
patriot who edited the St. Louis Observer and the Alton 
Observer, in the early days of the anti-slav^ery contest, 
should put on record, in a connected form, details of which 
I happened to become personally cognizant — matters of 
history relating to the death of Elijah P. Lovejo}-, which, 
unless recorded now by one who knew the facts, would be 
lost sight of forever. This has seemed, to my friends, the 
more important because no single event in the early history 
of the progress of the anti-slavery sentiment in the United 
States produced a more profound impression, at the time, 
than the successive destruction, by mobs, of the/c/^r print- 
ing-presses which belonged to Mr. Lovejoy, and in the 
defence of the last of which, under the sanction of civil 
authority, he sacrificed his life. 

In compiling, I am in debt to the memoir of Lovejoy, 
by his brothers, Joseph and Owen, to Wm. S. Lincoln's 
notes of trials of the defenders of the press, and to other 
publications of that day, long since out of print and now 
scarcely ever met with. My own remembrance of the 
scenes, in most of which I was an actor, has also been 
refreshed by conversations with Col. George T. M. Davis 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

and Winthrop S. Oilman, of New York City, who were 
residents of Alton at that time, and with A. W. Corey, of 
Godfrey, Illinois, Abram Breath, and the late Lawson A. 
Parks, both of the City of Alton. 

Another object I have in mind in presenting these 
records to the public is, to vindicate the memory of Love- 
joy from an absurd charge, made by some, that he broke 
his pledge in discussing the subject of slavery in the 
columns of the Alton Observer. And lastly, it is my wish 
to bear testimony to the meek and noble Christian charac- 
ter which marked this estimable man, who, with all the 
firmness of the early Christian martyrs, faced enemies fren- 
zied with passion, who would have stopped at nothing to 
compass his ruin. 



PREFACE. 



" The pop2iIar knozvledgc of Jiistory, xvJiicJi is none tlie less 
inipoitant because specialists may think that it can not but 
be supei'Jicial, must alzvays be inipai'ted by means of personal 
narrative. * * * * Yhe mass of mankind, 
who have little leisure for reading, and no motive for it but 
amusement, tvill not read any more about States aiid Gov- 
ernments than can be presented to them in biographies of 
famous menr — J. R. Seeley, M.A. 

The key to the present is found in the past, and the 
American citizen who would know how to meet the poHti- 
cal questions, which are constantly arising in our affairs, 
must be well-grounded in the history of the successive steps 
by which the present condition of parties and issues in this 
country has been reached. 

The march of events during the past forty years has 
been very rapid, and, while the latest great struggle has 
passed into history, it is still sufficiently vivid to most adults 
to dim the recollection of the events that preceded it, 
which, as germs of that great uprising, are of the utmost 
importance. 

The narrative related in the following pages is an un- 
varnished tale of the shedding of the first blood in defence 
of the liberty of the press, at the beginning of the discus- 
sion of the subject of negro slavery in the United States. 



8 PREFACE. 

Elijah Parish Lovejoy, a Presbyterian minister, editor of a 
religious newspaper, was attacked by a mob and killed, at 
Alton, Illinois, on the night of 7th November, 1837. Dur- 
ing a comparatively brief period, three of his printing- 
presses had been successively destroyed by mobs, and it 
w^as when engaged, with the sanction of the civil authority 
in the defence of a fourth, that he gave up his life. 

The martyrdom of Lovejoy had a most important influ- 
ence in setting forward public sentiment in favor of the 
liberties of the people and of obedience to constitutional 
law. It seems, therefore, to be worthy of careful re-exami- 
nation and thoughtful consideration at this time. 

It is difficult for the present generation to realize the 
intensity of the excitement that was produced forty years 
ago by the death of this brave man, and the previous events 
which it emphasized. He died a martyr to the cause of 
the freedom of the press, for which John Milton so elo- 
quently pleaded in his "Areopagitica," at a time when that 
freedom was violently assailed — he died a champion of 
constitutional law, when that law was openly defied through 
the length and breadth of the land, and no single event in 
the early history of the anti-slavery struggle produced a 
more profound impression throughout the country.* 

* The extent and depth of the feeling aroused at the time will be made clear 
by the following brief extracts. "William Ellery Channing, D.D., used this 
language, in an address to his fellow-citizens, of Boston : 

"An event has occurred which ought to thrill the hearts of this people as 
the heart of one man. A martyr has fallen among us to the freedom of the 
press. A citizen has been murdered in deft nee of the right of frie discussion. 
1 do not ask whether he was christian or unbeliever, whether he was abolition- 
ist or colonizatiunist. He has been murdered in exereisiiig what 1 hold to be 



PREFACE. 9 

It is proper for me to state that I was an actor in many 
of the scenes described, was — in company with other gentle- 
men — with Mr. Lovejoy in the warehouse where his fourth 
press was stored at the time of its defence, and by his side 
when he died. I have taken advantage of the reminis- 
censes of personal friends, some of whom have largel)' 
aided me in this work, and have extracted freely from a 
Memoir of Lovejoy, by his brothers (1838), from Lincoln's 
notes of trials of the defenders of the press, from Wendell 
Phillips' speeches, and from other publications, some ot 
which have been long out of print and are not easily acces- 
sible. 

I am indebted to Winthrop S. Gilman, Esq., of New 
York, one of the original twenty defenders, and owner of 
the building where the press was stored; and to his son, 
Arthur Gilman, M.A., of Cambridge, Mass., for valuable 
servicei^ arranging the contents of this work, and prepar- 
ing it for the press. 

HENRY TANNER, 

Buffalo, N.Y., 1880. 



the dearest right of the citizen. Nor is this a solitary act of violence. It is 
thii consummation of a long series of assaults on public order, on freedom, on 
the majesty of the laws." 

Of this brief period of history John Quincy Adams wrote as follows: 
"The incidents which preceded and accompanied and followed the catastro- 
phy of Mr. Lovejoy's death, point it out as an epoch in the annals of human 
liberty. They have given a shock as of an earthquake thr&ughout this conti- 
nent. " 

The Boston Recorder manifested the excitement produced when the editor 
declared that the events called forth from every part of the land "A burst of 
indignation which has not had its parallel in this country since the battle of 
Lexington, in 1775." 



CONTENTS 



Introduction, 6 

Preface, -.- — 8 

CHAPTER I. 
The Times — Excitement on the subject of Slavery — Determined 
spirit of the opposing parties 17 

CHAPTER II. 
Lovejoy's Early Life 21 

CHAPTER III. 
His religious experience — His conversion — The earnestness of 
his character - 26 

CHAPTER IV. 
Early religious editorial articles — Articles on Transubstantiation 
and Nunneries 33 

CHAPTER V. 
His views on Colonization and Gradual Emancipation, as he 
first held them -. 40 

CHAPTER VI. 
Excitement at St. Louis — An article on Slavery — Lovejoy's sym- 
pathy with the masters — Public feeling rising — White men 
whipped — -Prominent citizens counsel Mr. Lovejoy to cease 
discussing the subject of Slavery 49 

CHAPTER VIL 
Public meeting to oppose the discussion — Lovejoy's defence of 
his course 55 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Martyr-Spirit as displayed by Mr. Lovejoy — Letter from Mr. 
G. T. M. Davis 69 

CHAPTER IX. 
Lovejoy requested to retire from the editorial chair of the 



12 CONTENTS. 

"Observer"'- — The paper sold — He is called back again — 
His comments on the burning of a negro in St. Louis — On 
a charge of Judge Lawless to the Grand Jury 73 

CHAPTER X. 
Removal of the press to Alton — Mob at St. Louis on the occa- 
sion — The press destroyed on its arrival at Alton — The act 
disavowed at a public meeting, and money subscribed to 
buy a new press 86 

CHAPTER XL 

Lovejoy's letters and editorial articles at this time — His heroic 
wife — His view of Slavery — The cry of Amalgamation — 
The right application of the Gospel — The doctrines of 

anti-slavery men 89 

CHAPTER XH. 

The beginning of the end — The summer of 1837 — Petitions for 
the abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia — Call 
for the formation of the Illinois Anti-Slavery Society — Love- 
joy's most obnoxious editorial article 1 00 

CHAPTER XHL 
The "Market-House" meeting, for the "suppression of Abolition- 
ism" — Comments of the St. Louis press 108 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Lovejoy mobbed — Destruction of the second press — Lovejoy of- 
fers to resign as editor — His offer not accepted — A third 
press ordered — Its destruction— Lovejoy again mobbed — A 
thrilling narrative — A fourth press ordered. 123 

CHAPTER XV. 

An anti-slavery convention called — Proceedings of the Conven- 
tion — -Colonization meetings — President Edward Peecher, 
of Illinois College, defends Mr. Lovejoy — His address in- 
terrupted — A mob prevented by armed citizens 134 

CHAPTER XVL 
The last public meeting — The proceedings and the results — 
Comments in The Neia York American. 138 



CONTENTS. 13 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Mr. Lovejoy's defence, delivered at the above-mentioned meet- 
ing — His calmness — Announcement of his determination to 
remain in Alton - 144 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
The Riot of November 7th — Destruction of the fourth press — 
The murder of Lovejoy — His funeral 148 

CHAPTER XIX. 
The times and events — Letter from Winthrop S. Oilman, in whose 
vk^arehouse the fourth press had been stored 153 

CHAPTER XX. 
The voice of the contemporary press — In New York — In Massa- 
chusetts — In Pennsylvania — In Ohio — In Kentucky — In 
Missouri — In Tennessee — In Illinois 158 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Dr. Channing's address to the citizens of Boston 168 

CHAPTER XXII. 
The maiden speech of Wendell Phillips, in Faneuil Hall, 
Boston — 174 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
The Alton Trials — Action of the Grand Jury — Indictment of the 
protectors of the press — A remarkable document — Defence 
by George T. M. Davis — Acquittal — Indictment of the Riot- 
ers — Their acquittal — Conclusion. 187 

APPENDIX. 

Official Minutes of the Meeting held at Alton, November 2d, 
1837 — Resolutions offered by the Rev. Edward Beecher — 
The adjourned meeting — Resolution offered by the Attor- 
ney-General — A compromise report, with a bias— A pro- 
test and an appeal in favor of law — Mr. Lovejoy called 
upon to hold his peace — Alton wants "to be let alone." 104 



14 CONTENTS. 

APPENDIX B. 

Contemporary discussion in the United States Senate, and House 
of Representatives — Remarks by Clay, Calhoun, Buchanan, 
Henry A. Wise, Legare, Rhett, and others — Southern mem- 
bers leave the hall in a body 205 

APPENDIX C. 
Notes on the text. By Dr. Samuel Willard, Chicago 215 



The Martyrdom of Lovejoy. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Times — Excitement on the subject of Slavery— Determined 
spirit of the opposing parties. 

The early period of the anti-slavery movement, is well 
"known to have been one of intense excitement, and of 
vehement action. Slavery was becoming the C|uestion of 
the generation. On the one side was" a money-power of 
two-thousand millions of dollars, as the prices of slaves 
then ranged, held by a small body of able and desperate 
men, who composed a political aristocracy by special con- 
stitutional provisions; with cotton, the product of slave- 
labor, forming the basis of our whole foreign commerce, 
and with the heart of the common people chilled by a 
bitter prejudice against the black race. On the same side 
was the pecuniary interest of the Northern people, who 
found in the Southern States the most profitable purchasers 
for all their products. On the other side, a comparatively 
small number of hated abolitionists, whose sole capital was 
their ideas, and whose sole supporters were the men who 
insisted on free speech, a free press, and obedience to con- 
stitutional law. 

* See speeches of Wendell Phillips. 
2 



20- THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

The right of petitioning the government to abolish slavery 
in the District of Columbia was denied; and no man trav- 
eling in the South, who was supposed to favor Abolitionism, 
was safe, either in person or property. Ministers, who pub- 
licly prayed for the slave, were often looked upon with a 
threatening eye. 

At the time of this excitement, and between the fire of 
this array of opposing parties — each of whom preferred to 
die than to yield — Mr. Lovejoy was publishing a religious 
newspaper, on the banks of the Mississippi, in 1835-1837. 
He believed it to be his duty to stand firmly in full sympa- 
thy with the defenders of free speech — if need be to suffer 
with them — and between their principles and those of 
slaveholders a compromise was, in the nature of things, a 
moral impossibility. 

Mr. Lovejoy's paper, the St. Louis Observer, afterwards 
the Alton Observer, was the organ of zealous Presbyterians 
and Congregationalists in Illinois and Missouri, who in- 
sisted that it was his duty — as he himself fully believed — 
to die at his editorial post, if need be, rather than surrender 
the right of free speech and a free press. 



CHAPTER n. 
Lovejoy's Early Life. 

Elijah Parish Lovejoy was born in Albion, Maine, Nov. 
8. 1802. He would have been thirty-five years old the day 
after he was murdered. He was the son of Rev. Daniel 
Lovejoy, a Congregational minister, and had graduated at 
Waterville College, Maine. The tide of emigration was 
setting strongly Westward in the days of .Mr. Lovejoy's 
early manhood, and he drifted with it to St. Louis, where 
he first became a school-teacher, and subsequently editor 
of the St. Louis Times, a whig newspaper. In 1832, the 
whole current of his life was changed by means of a re- 
markable conversion to the Christian f^iith. He ever after 
felt that "The disciple is not above his master, nor the 
servant above his lord;" and nothing could satisfy his ferv- 
ent spirit, but preaching that cross which had shed such a 
flood of new light into his soul. He, therefore, soon en- 
tered Princeton Theological Seminar)-, where he progressed 
so rapidly that in the subsequent year, 1833, he was licensed 
to preach the gospel. He returned the same season to St. 
Louis, and, being known as a ready writer, was put in 
charge of the St. Louis Observer, then, as has been stated, 
the organ of Presbyterians in the States of Illinois and 
Missouri. 

It is worthy of notice, how soon after his conversion to 
Christ, this mighty man, in the first flush of divine love, 
and with a consecration and singleness of purpose quite re- 



22 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

markable, was chosen to edit a leading religious newspaper. 
Converted in 1832, he became a minister of the gospel in 
1833, and was in charge of influential editorial columns on 
the eleventh of November, of the latter year. He seemed 
to hear the voice of the spirit saying unto him: "What I 
tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light; and what ye 
hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And 
fear not them which kill the body." There probably had 
not lived in this century a man of greater singleness of 
purpose in bearing witness to the truth, or one who was 
more meek and peaceful; or more courageous in maintain- 
ing principle in the face of passionate opposition. 

Mr. Lovejoy was of medium height, broadly built, mus- 
cular, of dark complexion, black eyes, with a certain twinkle 
betraj'ing his sense of the humorous, and with a counte- 
nance expressing great kindness and sympathy. 

His demeanor among friends manifested meekness and 
patience, which nothing short of the controlling power of 
the Christian religion could have produced in one possessed 
of a will so strong and a nature so energetic. 

In tracing the facts which led at last to his death, we 
shall soon have occasion to notice his editorials, written 
upon other controverted subjects than the question of 
slavery, and the effect they produced. 

In reading these, we shall bear in mind that the period 
when they were written was one of powerful religious inter- 
est. Men's minds were profoundly moved; though twas 
forcibly stimulated; and a pungency and directness of 
appeal on moral and religious subjects was common, such 
as does not prevail in this generation. 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 23 

As a result of this relifjious movement in the East and 
West, the Roman CathoHc question assumed new prom- 
inence. Men began to discuss principles as they had not 
done before. 

A large imigration of Congregationalists and Presby- 
terians was at that day rushing into Illinois and Missouri, 
with the avowed design of laying the foundations of new 
cities and villages, and of establishing colleges and other 
institutions in order to mould society according to the 
principles of the gospel. Mr. Lovejoy participated in the 
common -missionary feeling of ardent Christian men, and 
felt it his dut}- to hold up their hands and boldly to attack 
3in, irrespective of the question as to how strongly or how 
respectably it was intrenched. Remembering these facts, 
we can the better appreciate his editorials and understand 
his position as a writer. 

A melancholy interest attaches to the following lines, 
selected from a few fugitive poems of Mr. Lovejoy, be- 
cause they evince a vague presentiment that his life would 
be short, and his blood might be shed "in freedom's holiest 
cause": 

FAREWELL TO MY NATIVE LAND. 
"Land of my birth! my natal soil farewell; 
The winds and waves are bearing me away 
Fast from thy shores; and I would offer thee 
This sincere tribute of a swelling heart. 
I love thee; witness that I do, my tears. 
Which gushingly do flow, and will not be restrained 
At thought of seeing thee, perchance, no more. 



24 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

Yes, I do love thee; though thy hills are bleak, 

And piercing cold thy winds; though winter blasts 

Howl long and dreary o'er thee, and thy skies 

Frown oftener than they smile; though thine is not 

The rich profusion that adorns the year in sunnier climes;. 

Though spicy gales blow not in incense from thy groves. 

For thou hast that, far more than worth them all. 

Health sits upon thy rugged hills, and blooms in all thy 

vales; 
Thy laws are just, or if they ever lean, 
'Tis to sweet mercy's side at pity's call. 
Thy sons are noble, in whose veins there runs 
A richer tide than Europe's kings can boast; 
The blood of freemen; blood which oft has flowed 
In Freedom's holiest cause; and ready yet to flow, 
If need should be, ere it would curdle down 
To the slow, sluggish stream of Slavery. 
Thy daughters, too, are fair, and beauty's mien 
Looks still the lovelier, graced with purit)^ 
For these I love thee; and if these were all. 
Good reason were there that thou shouldst be loved. 
But other ties, and dearer far than all. 
Bind fast my heart to thee. 

Who can forget the scenes in which the doubtful ray 
Of reason first dawned o'er him.'' Can memory e'er 
Forsake the home where friends, where parents dwell. ''^ 
Close by the mansion where I first drew breath. 
There stands a tree, beneath whose branching shade 
I've sported oft in childhood's sunny hours; — 
A lofty elm; — I've carved my name thereon; 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 25 

There let it grow, a still increasing proof, 

That time can not efface, nor distance dim 

The recollection of those halcyon days. 

My father, too; I've grieved his manly heart, 

Full many a time, by heedless waywardness. 

While he was laboring with a parent's care 

To feed and clothe his thoughtless, thankless boy. 

And I have trembled, as with frown severe 

He oft has checked mc, when perhaps I meant 

To do him pleasure, with my childish mirth; 

And thought how strange it was, he would not smile. 

But oh! my mother! she whose every look 

Was love and tenderness, that knew no check; 

W^ho joyed with me; whose fond maternal eye 

Grew dim, when pain or sorrow faded mine. 

My mother! thou art thinking now of me, 

And tears are thine that I have left thee so. 

Oh, do not grieve, for God will hear those prayers. 

Which constantly are going up to heaven, 

For blessings on thy lone and wandering son. 

But time is speeding, and the billow waves 

Are hurrying me away. Thy mist}' shores 

Grow dim in distance, while yon setting sun 

Seems lingering fondly on them, as 'twould take, 

Like me, a last adieu. I go to tread 

The Western vales, whose gloomy cypress tree 

Shall haply soon be wreathed upon my bier: 

Land of my birth! my natal soil, Farewell." 



^ER III. 

His religious experience — His conversion — The earnestnels ot 
his character. 

The following letters, giving to his parents an account of 
his deep religious feelings, and their replies, showing the 
tenderness of the family affection, throw much light upon 
the martyr's character : 

"St. Louis, February 22, 1832. 

"Mv Dear and Honored Parents: 

'•After reading this letter, you will, I think, be ready 
to exclaim with me, 'God's ways are not our ways, 
nor his thoughts as our thoughts.' When this letter 
reaches you, I shall, if God spares my life and health, be 
on my way to Princeton, in New Jersey, for the purpose of 
entering upon my studies, preparatory to the work of the 
ministry. 

"I wrote you, four weeks since last Tuesday, and, as you 
will have learned from that letter, was then in a state of deep 
distress. Sorrow had taken hold upon me, and a sense of 
my long career in sin and rebellion against God, lay heavy 
upon my soul. But it pleased God, and blessed be his 
holy name, to grant me, as I humbly hope, that very night, 
joy and peace in believing. I was, by Divine grace, en- 
abled to bring all my sins and all my sorrows, and lay 
them at the feet of Jesus, and to rcceiv^e the blessed as- 
surance that He had accepted me, all sinful and polluted 
as I was. 

26 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 2/ 

"My dear parents, I can see you now, after hav'ing read 
thus far, shedding tears of joy over the return of your 
prodigal son; but oh! forget not to return thanks to that 
God of the promises, who, as I humbly hope, has at length 
heard your prayers in behalf of one, for whom, at times, 
you were ready to say, there remaineth no longer any hope. 
And surely, you may well join with me in saying, that 
nothing but a miracle of Sovereign mercy could have ar- 
rested and saved me from eternal perdition. How I could 
have so long resisted the entreaties, the prayers, and the 
tears of my dear parents, and the influences of the Holy 
Spirit, is, to me, a wonder entirely incomprehensible; and 
still greater is my astonishment, and my admiration, that 
God has still borne with me, still continued unto me the 
influences of His spirit, and at last brought me to submit 
myself to Him. I think I can now have some faint con- 
ceptions of boundless, infinite mercy. I look back upon 
my past life, and am lost in utter amazement at the perfect 
folly and madness of my conduct. Why, my dear parents, 
it is the easiest thing in the world to become a Christian — 
ten thousand times easier than it is to hold out unrepenting 
against the motives which God presents to the mind to in- 
duce it to forsake its evil thoughts and turn unto Him. If 
I could forget what I have been and what I have done, I 
should certainly say it was impossible that any one could 
read of a Saviour, and not love Him with their whole 
heart. The eternal God — the infinite Jehovah — has done 
all He could do — even to the sacrificing of his own Son — 
to provide a way for man's happiness; and yet they reject 
Him, hate Him, and laugh him to scorn! How God could 



28 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 



suffer me to live so long as I have lived, is more than I can 
understand. Well may He call upon the heavens to be 
astonished both at His own forbearance and the unnatural 
rebellion of His creatures. Do Christians ever feel op- 
pressed, as it were, with the debt of gratitude which they 
owe to their Redeemer. Why, it seems to me, sometimes, 
as if I could not bear up under the weight of my obliga- 
tions to God in Christ, as if they would press me to the 
very earth; and I am only relieved by the reflection that I 
have an eternity in which I may praise and magnify the 
riches of His grace. 

"And now, my dear and honored parents, how shall I ex- 
press my sense of the gratitude I owe to you — how shall I 
ask pardon for all the undutiful conduct of which I have 
been guilty towards you.^ I want words to do either; but 
I can pray to God to forgive me, and to reward you, and 
this I do daily. Oh, how much do I owe you for your 
kindness to me in every thing, but chiefly for the religious 
instruction you bestowed upon me from my earliest youth; 
for your affectionate warnings and continued entreaties 
that I would attend to the welfare of my own soul; an'd 
for your prayers, without ceasing, to God that He would 
have mercy upon me, while I had no mercy on myself. 
For all these, may heaven return upon }'our own heads a 
seven-fold blessing. 

" I made a public profession of religion, and joined the 
church in this city, on the Sabbath before the last, the 
twelfth of the present month. With me joined also thirty- 
five others by profession, and four by letter. There are, 
probably, as many more prepared to join as soon as the 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 29 

next communion shall arrive. You will see by these facts, 
that an unusual attention to religion exists in this place. 
God is doing wonders here. The revival still continues, 
and day after to-morrow will commence a four-days' meet- 
ing. How long this state of things will continue is known 
only to God ; but we know that he can work, and none 
can hinder. 

"After much prayer and consultation with my pastor, 
Rev. William S. Potts, and other Christian friends, I have 
felt it my duty to turn my immediate attention to the 
work of the ministry, and shall, on the first of the week, 
start for Princeton, with a view of entering upon the neces- 
sary studies. If God shall spare my hitherto unprofitable 
hfe, I hope to be enabled to spend the remainder of it, in 
some measure, to His glory. Time now with me is pre- 
cious, and every day seems an age, till I can be at work in 
the vineyard of the Lord. Oh, my dear parents, are not 
the ways of Providence inscrutable. How long, and how 
often, did you pray that your first-born son might succeed 
his father in preaching the gospel, and after you had, 
doubtless, given over all such hopes, then the Lord displays 
His power in calling in the wanderer. 

'T hope to see you in the course of the surnmer, face to 
face; for, if practicable, and within the reach of my means, 
I shall take time enough in a vacation to make a visit to 
my dear loved home. Oh, how I long to embrace my 
parents, and brothers, and sisters, and tell them what God 
has done for me. But I feel that I ought to say, and I trust 
He will enable them to say, 'His will be done.' Surely, 
after all His goodness unto us, we should no longer indulge 
in one murmurinfj thous'ht. 



30 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

"Brother Owen, and brother John, you are now the only 
members of the family who have not professed to hope in 
Christ — to have made your peace with God. Oh, let me 
entreat you, beseech you, not to put it ofif a moment longer. 
Tempt not God, as I have done. Think of poor brother 
Daniel, and make your peace with a Saviour before you 
sleep, after reading this. 

" Your dutiful and grateful son, 

" Elijah P. Lovejoy." 



It may be easily imagined that the above letters gave 
great joy to his parents and friends. The following is the 
joint reply of father and mother: 

"Albion, Maine, March 19, 1832. 
"My Dear First-born and Long Absent Son: 
"You, perhaps, may better conceive, than I can express, 
the sensations your two last letters have excited in my 
mind. 

"Your first, found me in a state of deep mental debility, 
to which, as you know, I have always been more or less sub- 
ject. But I am now better — to which your letter has con- 
tributed much. There is no other way in which you could 
have given us so much joy, as you have done in the full ac- 
count of your conversion, and of the intended change of your 
pursuits. It is just what we could have wished, had it 
been left to us to dictate in every particular. Let all the 
praise and glory be given to God through Jesus Christ. I 
am glad you have made haste to keep His command- 
ments. You crave us much more credit than we think wc 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 3 1 

deserve. Our faith has been wavering, and our desires far 
less ardent than they should have been. Our attachment 
to the blessed covenant has not been in proportion to its 
value; yet no day has passed when you have been forgotten 
at the throne of grace; and the blessed promises of the 
covenant have tended more than anything else to keep 
alive my hope. 

"Your last letter produced sensations not unlike those, 
which I presume Jacob felt, when he saw the wagons sent 
from Egypt by his long absent son. Do not think of de- 
ferring your visit a moment longer than is absolutely nec- 
essary. Returning from Washington, I found your letter 
upon a generous sheet — I read and read it; and then we 
sang the loist hymn, first book. We then bowed, and 
gave thanks to the God of heaven, who hath mercy on 
whom he will have mercy. Thanks to Ills name, that He 
has brought our dear son to the arms of the Saviour, and 
rescued him from the wrath to come. Oh, blessed be the 
Lord God of Abraham, and let all fle.sh bless His holy 
name. You can but know that you are greatly beloved bv 
all the family, and no one could diffuse more happiness 
among us. Your mother wishes to fill the remainder. 
"As ever, your affectionate father, 

"Daniel Lovj-joy." 



"My Dear Son: 

" I wrote you in answer to yours of January 22d, 
giving you an account of our health and circumstances. I 
can not say that the contents of your last letter were 
more than I expected; for I did really believe that God 



32 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 

had given you a broken and contrite heart; and that is 
where the Holy Spirit dehghts to dwell. Neither can I 
say it is more than I have asked. It is just what I have 
prayed for, as I have thought, with all my heart. But I can 
say it is more than I deserved. But God is a Sovereign; 
He does not deal with us according to our deserts, nor re- 
ward us according to our iniquities. For as far as the 
heavens are above the earth, so far are His thoughts above 
our thoughts. 

"The death of your dear brother Daniel was a dark and 
mysterious Providence. It almost overwhelmed me with 
gloom and despondency ; and I thought it never could be 
explained to me, till I arrived at the heavenly world. But 
I think I can now see why it must be so. I was not suffi- 
ciently humble, nor prepared to receive the blessings which 
God had in store for mc. Oh, that the blessed God would 
keep me at His feet in the very dust before Him. I never 
had so clear a view of the evil nature of sin, and of the 
glorious plan of salvation by Jesus Christ, as I have had 
since the death of my dear child. God has made me feel 
that it is an evil and bitter thing to sin against Him — that 
His ways are equal. And now, my dear child, I hope you 
will follow on to know^ the Lord, that you may find your 
going forth prepared as the morning — that His spirit may 
come unto you as the rain, as the latter and the former 
rain unto the earth. 

" So prays your rejoicing, affectionate mother, 

" Elizabeth Lovejoy." 



CHAPTER IV. 

Early religious editorial articles — Articles on Transubstantiatioii 
and Nunneries.. 

Among the early editorial articles of Mr. I.ovejoy were 
two, which, being published in a city (St. Louis) where there 
was a large and influential body of Roman Catholics, pro- 
voked the first opposition his paper had encountered. 
They are on the doctrine of transubstantiation, and the 
.subject of nunneries, as follows: 

"TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 

"There is one plain argument against this doctrine, which 
can never be set aside: 

" I. We are required to believe that the consecrated 
bread and wine are really the flesh and blood of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, because the Bible says, or rather the Saviour 
speaks in the Bible, ' This ' (that is, the bread,) ' is my 
body,' and ' This ' (that is, the wine,) ' is my blood.' Now, 
supposing I ask, how am I to know the Bible says any 
.such tiling.^ The priest opens the book and shows me the 
very words, ' This is my body.' But now I ask to see the 
bread and the wine thus metamorphosed. The priest 
gives me the wafer, I taste it, it tastes like bread; I smell 
it, it smells like bread; I handle it, it feels like bread. 
And so of the wine. 

"2. I therefore turn to the priest and say, here are three 

senses to one in favor of these elements being bread and 

f -1 -? 

o j3 



34 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 

wine Still ; I am, therefore, bound to believe them so. I 
can not, from the very laws of my being, believe one sense in 
preference to three. I am, therefore, bound to seek some 
other fair interpretation of the words, ' This is my body,' 
than the one you have given them, or else reject them alto- 
gether. And here I need be at no loss. Turning to John, 
X. 9, I find Jesus saying, 'I am the door;' and in John, 
XV. I, he says, T am the true vine,' yet you do not pre- 
tend to make the Saviour literally say that he was a door 
or a vine. Or if he had, when speaking to his disciples^ 
intended to be understood literally, and they had so under- 
stood his meaning, they could not have believed him. 
They heard him say so, but they smelled, saw, and felt that 
he was not so, and, consequently, must distrust their own 
hearing or his veracity. And the case would be the same 
when sitting with him at the supper of the passover. If 
he declared to them that they were eating and drinking flesh 
and blood, they could only know that he did so by the 
sense of hearing, whereas, by three senses, taste, touch, and 
smell, they would be assured they were doing no such 
thing. According to the very laws of the human mind, 
therefore, they could not so understand him. 

"3. The only remark we have to make upon this argu- 
ment is, that no man, in his senses, ever believed fully and 
fairly the doctrine of transubstantiation. It is impossible 
that he should do so. He might as well believe that fire 
is cold and ice is hot, or that a thing is and is not at the 
same time. Let us not be misunderstood ; there have, doubt- 
less, been many men who honestly tliougJit they believed it, 
but, owing to the prejudice of education, their minds, in 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 35 

this point, was dark, and saw things that were not as 
though they were. So often do we see individuals afflicted 
with mental imbecihty on some particular subject, but per- 
fectly sane on every other. In this way we can account 
for the fact that many good men have unquestionably sjip- 
poscd they believed the doctrine of transubstatiation ; a 
dogma which, if true, makes, as has been well said, every 
other truth a lie. 

"NUNNERIES. 

"That these institutions should ever have acquired any 
favor in a comnmnity so shrewd, sagacious, and suspicious 
as the American people are, is truly a wonder. And that 
they should have succeeded in obtaining inmates from the 
families of Protestants, and even members of the church, 
is still more astonishing. It is to be accounted for on no 
common principle of human action. In this, as in other 
things, Romanism has shown itself a ' mystery of ini- 
quity.' 

"What is a nunnery.? Have the American people ever 
asked themselves this question.? And if so, have they 
ever reflected long enough upon it to obtain an answer 
satisfactory to their own mind.? What is a nunnery, we 
ask again.? We will tell. It is a dwelling whose inmates 
consists of unmarried females of all ages, tempers, disposi- 
tions, and habits. These females have entered into volun- 
tary vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience to the rules of 
their order and their spiritual superiors. They have been 
induced to take these vows and exclude themselves from 
the world, from various motives. Some whose affections 
were young and ardent, from disappointment of the heart ; 



36 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

some from love of retirement; some from morbid sensi- 
tiveness to the world of society, and some others from the 
blandishments of priest and lady -superiors. In Europe, 
there is another cause — operating more than any other, 
perhaps than all others — which people the convents. Un- 
feeling parents make them the receptacle of those daugh- 
ters, who may be in the way of the aggrandizement of other 
members of the family, or who may be disposed to con- 
tract an alliance which they will not approve. This, too, 
is probably a remote cause of many entering convents in 
this country. 

"Very well; now let us take a convent whose inmates 
have been brought together from causes like the above. 
There are the aged, the middle-aged, the young, the 
ardent, the beautiful. Thus much concerning them we all 
know. 

"But one of these communities issues, through their su- 
perior, to the community in which it is situated, proposals 
for taking young ladies as inmates in their dwelling and 
educating them there. This is all well enough. But now, 
suppose a Protestant parent, before committing his daugh- 
ters to their guardianship, visits the convent to learn some- 
thing of its character. He finds it situated in a retired 
place, surrounded with a high wall, embosomed in luxu- 
rious groves. All the charms of nature and art are com- 
bined to render its retreat inviting and its bowers alluring. 
Into one room only can the visitant have access. Laby- 
rinthian passages, in various directions, lead to appartments 
never to be profaned by a Protestant eye. 

"All here is seclusion and mj'stery. These doors are 



THE MARTVKDO.M OF LOVEJCV. 37 

locked, and neither parent, brother, friend, nor even sister, 
can turn the key. Yet to this rigid exclusion there is one 
exception. The Calthohc priest is privileged to come at 
all hours, and on all occasions, as may suit his convenience. 
He has the 'open sesame,' before which the door of 
every department flies open, and admits him to familiar, 
unrestrained intercourse with its inmates But who is the 
Catholic priest.' Is he aged, venerable.' Is he even a 
married man.' No; he is (or may be) a young man, and 
like those whom he visits, bound by his vow to a life of 
celibac}-. And whatever his vozv may have been, his looks 
show abundantly that fasting, penance, and mortifying of 
the body make no part of his ptacticc. His is not the lean 
and subdued countenance of the penitent, but the jolly 
visage of the sensualist rather. Alas! for the ladies of 
the convent, if his vow of chastity is kept no better than 
his vow of poverty and penance. And what reason have 
we to suppose it is.' If he violate it in one case, why not 
in the other.' The temptation is, at least, as great. 

We will present this subject in a little different licrht 
Suppose a dozen young ministers from the Theological 
Seminary of Princeton, having just been ordained, should 
come out and take up their abode in the City of St. Louis. 
Suppose some one of our wealthy citizens, or. if you please, 
citizens of Boston, or New York, should furnish them with 
the funds requisite to put up a building in some retired 
place in the outskirts of the town; supposing the building 
finished, furnished, enclosed with a high wall, evident!)- in- 
tended for exclusion. Suppose now the young gentlemen 
advertise in the newspapers of the city that they have 



38 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 

brought with them, from Boston, a dozen young ladies 
who have each made a solemn promise that they will never 
marry, and that these ladies are now in the newly-erected 
building, prepared to open a school, and to receive female 
pupils as boarders. Suppose they also should make it 
known that these young ladies had chosen one of their own 
number* — or perhaps the arrangement might be that they 
should take turns in performing this office, but always so 
that but one at a time should be at the house — to be their 
father confessor, and that he was to have access to their 
dwelling at any or all times, coming and going unques- 
tioned, and that he, or certainly his fellows, were to be the 
only males who should have access to, or authority in, the 
establishment. All this being perfectly understood, let us, 
for the last time, suppose that one of these young gentle- 
men should go round to the respectable families of our city 
and solicit that their daughters might become the inmates, 
as pupils, of their establishment. What reception would 
he be likely to meet with.' How many young ladies would 
he be likely to collect for his school.'' Yet, gentle reader, 
suppose all the above conditions fulfilled, and you have a 
Protestant convent or nunnery, formed, in all its essential 
features, on the most -approved model of the Romanists. 
Who would trust a dozen Protestant ministers, under such 
circumstances as these.'' No one. And, indeed, the very 
fact that they asked to be trusted would prove them all 
unworthy. But do the annals of the churclv show that 
the Popish priesthood arc more worthy of trust, purer, 
holier than the Protestant clergy? Read " Scipio de 
* One of the vouns; men. 



THE MARTVRDU-M OF LOVEJOY. 39 

Ricci," and "Blanco White;" read " Secreta Monita" of 
the Jesuits, "Bower's History of the Popes," and "Text 
Book of Popery," or if these will not convince, read Hume, 
Gibbon, Robertson, or even Lingard himself — read Ros- 
coe's Leo the Tenth; nay, their own approved manuals of 
faith and practice. Read these and know that corruption, 
rank and foul, has always steamed, and is now steaming 
from the thousand monasteries, convents, and nunneries 
that are spread, like so many plague-spots, over the surface 
of Europe. 

We do not say, tor we do not believe, that they have 
reached the same degree of pollution in this country. Far 
from it; and yet we are no advocates of, or believers in, 
their immaculate purity. But what we say is this, that so 
long as human nature remains as it is, so long will the ten- 
dency, the unavoidable tendency, of such institutions be to 
iniquity and corruption. We care not in whose hands they 
are, Popish or Protestant, they tempt to sin all who are 
connected with them. We might even admit that they 
were founded with good intentions — which, in many in- 
stances, we have no doubt has been the case — and still 
our objections to them would be no whit lessened. Talk 
of vows of chastity in chambers of impenetrable seclu- 
sion, and amidst bowers of voluptuousness and beauty! 
'Tis a shameful mockery, and especially with the record 
of history spread out before us. For that informs us that 
the nunnery has generally been neither more nor less than 
a seraglio for the friars of the monastery. 



CHAPTER V. 

His views on Colonization and Gradual Emancipation, as he 
first held them. 

In common with many good citizens of Missouri, Mr. 
Lovcjoy looked forward to the State Convention, ap- 
pointed for Dec, 1835, ^^^ hope that some action would 
then be taken to secure gradual emancipation. He felt it 
to be right, as the editor of a religious paper, to open his 
columns for the temperate discussion of the subject, and 
to present his own views in the editorial columns. PVom 
one of his articles, dated i6th April, 1835, it will be seen 
that 7V^c vS7. Louis Republican, the leading commercial 
paper of the State, held similar views, at that time, ta 
those of Mr. Lovejoy upon the subject: 

SLAVERY. 

We ask from every professor of Cliristianity, as also 
from all others, a careful, candid, and prayerful perusal of 
the article on our first page on this subject. It is from 
the pen of one* who is entitled to be heard in the case; 
inasmuch as having been a slave-holder once, he has ceased 
to be such by emancipating all his slaves. 

The main principles, facts, and inferences stated by the 
writer, we are so far from questioning, that we believe them 
entirely correct. 

" How hardly shall they that have riches be saved," said 

* The arlicle is siy;ned "N.," presumed to be from Dr. Nelson, author of 
"Nelson on Infidelity." 

40 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 4 1 

One who perfectly well knew the principles by which the 
human mind operated and was operated upon. For the 
same reason, though found in the opposite extreme, we 
may say how hardly shall they that are slaves enter into 
the kingdom of heaven. In either case there is nothing 
which absolutely forbids heaven to either class, or which 
renders it of itself more difficult of attainment, yet, judg- 
ing from analogy and from the results of experience, we 
are enabled confidently to predict that not " many wise, 
not many noble,' and not many ignorant slaves will make 
their way through the difficulties that surround their posi- 
tions, to a heaven of disinterestedness and intelligence. 

While therefore we cordially adopt the main sentiments 
of our correspondent, and would affectionately, yet urgent- 
ly, press them upon our Christian readers as a reason why 
they should introduce a thorough change in their manner 
of treating, or rather neglecting, their slaves, so far as 
religious instruction is concerned; we do not believe that 
this change ought to be immediate and icnconditio7ial eman- 
cipation. We are entirely convinced that such a course 
would be cruel to the slave himself, and injurious to the 
community at large. But something must be done and 
done speedily on this all-important subject. While Chris- 
tians have been slum.bering over it, the eye of God has not 
slumbered, nor has his justice been an indifferent spectator 
of the scene. The groans, and sighs, and tears, and blood 
of the poor slave have gone up as a memorial before the 
throne of heaven. In due time they will descend in awful 
curses upon this land, unless averted by the speedy repent- 
ance of us all 



42 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

Look at the manner in which our sister State, Louisiana, 
is treating her slaves! Why, as surely as there is a thun- 
der-bolt in heaven and strength in God's right arm to 
launch it, so sureh' will it strike the authors of such cruel 
oppression. Look, too, at the slave-drivers, who go up 
and down our own streets, lifting their heads and moving 
among us unshamed, unrebuked, — as if they had not for- 
feited all claim to the name o'i man. All abhor the traffic, 
and detest the \\retch who pursues it; why then is he not 
driven from the face of day, and made to hide himself in 
some dark corner, whose mirky gloom might faintly em- 
blem the savage darkness of his own heart? Why? simply 
because public sentiment has never been aroused to think 
on the subject. If the laws protect the miscreant who 
coins his wealth out of the heart's blood of his fellow-crea- 
tures, he can at least be crushed beneath the odium of 
public opinion. 

There is another fact we wish to introduce in this place. 
It is this: Congress, acting only as the organ of public 
opinion, lias pronounced the slave-trade from the coast of 
Africa piracy. Those engaged in it are punishable with 
death. From a statement giv^en in the journal of Covi- 
viercc, it appears that last Nov-ember, there were no less 
than forty-cigJit slave vessels on the African coast engaged 
in this nefarious traffic. It was supposed these vessels 
would carry off at least 20,000 victims, — victims in every 
sense of the term, to tyranny, brutality, and lust. 

It also appears that many of these poor wretches eventu- 
ally land in the United States by way of Cuba and other 
Spanish islands. Particularly is it to be feared and sup- 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 43 

posed that many of them are smuggled into Louisiana. 
Now, although the system of domestic slavery is not nec- 
essarily connected with this foreign piratical trade, yet no 
one can deny that it tends greatly to encourage it. And 
no one can deny, that if domestic slavery should cease 
throughout Christendom, the slave-trade from Africa 
would cease of course. We mention these things as 
affording strong incidental reasons for action among our- 
selves at home. Above all the rest, the same paper states 
that there is no doubt a slave-vessel left New York a few 
days since. 

In this connection it gives us heartfelt pleasure to intro- 
duce the following extract from The Republican of Friday 
last. The editors are referring to the convention about 
to be called for the purpose of amending our constitution. 
With the sentiments of the extract we most cordially con- 
cur, and hope the editors will not fail to keep the subject 
before their readers till the time for action shall arrive. 
And who are the individuals, or individual, who will make 
it their business between the present time and the time 
for voting, to arouse and enlighten public sentiment on 
this great subject.' What a glorious opportunity is now 
offered to such a one — an opportunity such as will not be 
likely again to arise for centuries to come — to confer a 
lasting, an unspeakable benefit upon the citizens of this 
State, of this republic, and upon the cause of universal 
humanity! Is it too much to ask of Christians, that they 
will ask the Lord, in fer\-ent, importunate prayer, to send 
such a laborer into the field of this State.' We do not 
want a man from the northern or middle States; we want 



44 'iHP: MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 

one who has himself been educated in the midst of slavery, 
who has always lived in contact with it, who knows, experi- 
mentally, all its evils, and all its difficulties, — one who will 
not lift his head up into the region of abstract speculation, 
and in the loftiness of his pride, in a beautiful theory, dis- 
dain alike to make acquaintance with facts and with com- 
mon-sense. To such a man a golden opportunity of doing 
good is offered. We believe the minds of the good people 
of this State are fully prepared to listen to him, — to give a 
dispassionate consideration to the facts and reasonings he 
might present connected with the subject of slavery. 

Public sentiment, amongst us, is already moving in this 
great matter — it now wants to be directed in some defined 
channel, to some definite end. 

Taking all in all, there is not a State in this Union pos- 
sessing superior natural advantages to our own. At pre- 
sent, slavery, like an incubus, is paralyzing our energies, 
and like a cloud of evil portent, darkening all our pros- 
pects. ■ Let this be removed, and Missouri would at once 
start forward in the race of improvement, with an energy 
and rapidity of movement that would soon place her in 
the front rank along with the most favored of her sister 
States. But we stay too long from the extract from The 
Republican: 

" We look to the convention as a happy means of re- 
lieving the State, at some future day, of an evil which is 
destroying all our wholesome energies, and leaving us, 
in morals, in enterprise, and in wealth, behind the neigh- 
boring States. We mean, of course, the curse of slavery. 
We are not about to make any attack upon the rights 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 45 

of those who at present hold this description of property. 
They ought to be respected to the letter. We only pro- 
pose that measures shall now be taken for the abolition 
of slavery, at such distant period of time as may be 
thought expedient, and eventually for ridding the coun- 
tr}' altogether of a colored population. The plan has 
been adopted in other States, and they have been effec- 
tually relieved from the incubus which, even now, is weigh- 
ing us down. With no decided advantage in soil, climate, 
productions, or facilities, the free States have shot far ahead 
of those in which slavery is tolerated. We need go no 
further than Ohio and Kentucky for an illustration of this 
assertion. For ourselves, if this one principle shall be 
adopted, whatever may be the errors of the convention — 
no matter with how many absurdities the Constitution may 
abound, we shall gladly overlook them all. To secure so 
important a benefit, we must set about it at once. Now is 
the time for action. The evil of which we are speaking 
may be arrested in its incipient stage. It is, perhaps, the 
last time we shall have an opportunity of attempting it. 
I And we call upon all citizens, of whatever rank, sect, or 
' party, to aid in this good and glorious work. It is one in 
j which all, laying aside minor controversies and considera- 
tions, may unite, and all may exert a favorable influence. 
I Let us to the work then firmly and heartily!" 

Mr. Lovejoy continued to publish editorials in favor of 
gradual emancipation, expressing his views firmly, but 
with great modest)-, as will be seen in the following, 
dated 30th April, 1835: 



46 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY 

" SLAVERY. 

"There can be no doubt that this subject, in its various 
bearings, will occupy much of the attention of the good 
people of this State, the ensuing season. We take it for 
granted there will be a convention of the people at the 
time designated by our Legislature, (next December,) for 
the purpose of amending our Constitution. This conven- 
tion will afford an opportunity for again deciding the 
question whether Missouri shall hereafter be a free or con- 
tinue a slave state. We look upon this question as one of 
niore importance than we have words to express. And in 
its discussion and final decision by the convention, we feel 
how much need there is of mutual forbearance among all 
those who shall have a word to say on the subject, as well 
as the exercise of that calm, sagacious, patriotic foresight 
which looks to the good of the whole community, and con- 
sults for the good of future as of present generations. 

Let an unbiased, intelligent decision of our fellow-citizens 
in the matter be had, and we have no fears of the result. 
We know very well that a right decision of the case will, 
in many instances, have to be made in the face of immedi- 
ate personal interest; but we look with confidence to the 
intelligence, the good sense, and the moral justice of our 
citizens as fully adequate to the crisis. 

" Slavery, as it exists among us, admits of being con- 
sidered in a three-fold view — in a civil, a religious, and a 
moral view. Considered in any of these lights, it is de- 
monstrably an evil. In every community where it exists, 
it presses like a nightmare on the body politic. Or, like 
the vampire, it slowly and imperceptibly sucks away the 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 47 

life-blood of society, leaving it faint and disheartened to 
stagger along the road of improvement. Look at Vir- 
ginia — that noble commonwealth, the mother of States and 
great men — how strikingly does her present condition illus- 
trate the truth of this sentiment. 

"The evils of slavery, in a moral and religious point of 
view, need not be told ; they are seen, and palpably, by all. 

" It becomes us, as a Christian people, as those who be- 
lieve in the future retribution of a righteous Providence, to 
remove from our midst an institution, no less the cause of 
moral corruption to the master than to the slave. It surely 
can not be thought wrong to press such a notion as this 
upon the consideration of our fellow-citizens. 

" Gradual emancipation is the remedy we propose. This 
we look upon as the only feasible, and indeed, the only de- 
sirable way of effecting our release from the thraldom in 
which we are held. In the meantime, the rights of all 
classes of our citizens should be respected, and the work 
be proposed, carried on, and finished, as one in which all 
classes of our citizens are alike interested, and in which all 
may alike be called upon to make sacrifices of individual 
interests to the general welfare of the community. 

" There is, however, another matter — and we mention it 
here, lest our silence may be misinterpreted — connected 
with this subject, which admits, nay, demands a very dif- 
ferent mode of treatment. We mean the manner in which 
the relations subsisting between Christians and their slaves 
are fulfilled. Here the reform ought to be thorough and 
immediate. There is no possible plea which can afford ex- 
cuse for a moment's delav. 



48 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVKJOY. 

" On this point we expect to have much to say, and we 
hope our readers will bear in mind — and thus save them- 
selves from confounding our arguments on the two points — 
that while on the general subject of slavery we are decid- 
edly gradual, on this part of it we are as decidedly im- 
mediate abolitionists. It is fearfully true that many pro- 
fessed Christians habitually treat their slaves as though 
they had no immortal souls, and it is high time such a prac- 
tice as this were abolished^ 



CHAPTER VI. 

F.xritement at St. Louis — An article on Slavery — Lovejoy's sym- 
pathy with the masters — Public feeling rising — Wfjite men 
whipped — Prominent citizens counsel Mr. Lovejoy to cease- 
discussing the subject of Slavery 

During the summer of 1835, Mr. Lovejoy continued to 
publish articles in the St. Louis Observer, on the subject ot 
slavery. He exhibited no little sympathy for the masters, 
as well as the slaves, and disapproved heated and angry 
discussion of the subject, as appears by the following from 
his paper in the month of June. He was then in favor of 
colonization and gradual emancipation : 
"SLAVERY. 

"This subject is one which has always, since we have 
known anything of the Southern and Slave-holding West- 
ern States, been regarded as exceedingly delicate and diffi- 
cult of management. We feel it to be so at the moment of 
penning these remarks. Not because — as some of our 
Abolitionist brethren will charge us — we fear the truth, 
and are unwilling to perform our duty, but, because there 
is real difficulty in ascertaining what that duty is. The 
man who has been reared in the midst of Slavery, and 
acquainted with the system from his earliest infancy, who 
regards the colored man as part of the estate bequeathed 
to him by his parents, and his right over him guaranteed 
by the Constitution of his country-, becomes excited, when 
any one denies this right, and lays down ethical principles 

4 49 



50 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

for liis government, that, in their operation, must beggar 
him. 

"Nor is this all; he finds himself the subject of bitter in- 
vective and unmeasured denunciation. As a man, stripped 
of all honorable pretension, and made a participant with 
the heartless man-stealer, whose crime he abhors. As a 
Christian, denounced and accounted a profaner of the sym- 
bols of his holy religion. Held up to society as a monster 
in human shape, a tyrant who delights in the pangs in- 
flicted upon his fellow-man. We have never w'ondered that 
under such circumstances, it should be an exciting subject — 
he must be more than human who would not be sensible 
of the recoil in his feelings. 

" He may at the same time be wrong. But his early asso- 
ciations — his prejudices, are all upon the side of long-estab- 
lished opinions; and hence it should hardly be expected, 
that, at the first glance, he should sec the truth as one 
differently situated, may see it, and instantly espousing the 
opinion of the opposite party, give an evidence of his sin- 
cerity that the other was never called to give, by passing 
immediately from affluence to poverty. In all controver- 
sies, there is a strong tendency in the parties to take ex- 
treme ground — so in this — and hence he finds himself 
charged with views and feelings, and base motives for his 
opposition, which he is at the moment conscious he does 
not possess, and which the very man who presses the 
charge against him, in his cooler moments, would not think 
of making. Certain it is, that in this controversy, no one 
will be persuaded by naked denunciation or misrepresenta- 
tions — but cool and temperate argument, supported by- 
facts, must perform the work. 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 5 1 

"It has been with pain that we have seen, recently, the 
heated and angry meetings and discussions which have 
taken place amongst our eastern brethren of the Abolition 
and Colonization parties." 

INXREASE OF EXCITEMENT. 

The abolition excitement increased every day during 
the summer of 1835. Slave-holders, at St. Louis, became 
unwilling to permit any one to address, "cool and temper- 
ate arguments" to them on the subject of Slavery. Mr. 
Lovejoy's articles, therefore, though conceived in a Chris- 
tian spirit, were very offensive. Not a word must be said — 
the silence of death would alone satisfy them, while he 
demanded free speech. The difference was irreconcilable. 
Obloquy and reproach were heaped upon him. The rab- 
ble called him — with a curse — an amalgamationist, and 
threatened to destroy his office: slave-holders were ready 
to tar and feather him as an Abolitionist, and no man ven- 
tured to defend him in that city. In this state of things, 
Mr. Lovejoy's clerical duties led him to leave St. Louis for 
about three weeks, to attend Synod and Presbytery. 

The excitement was so great that the prudent proprie- 
tors of the St. Louis Observer, and its St. Louis patrons, 
published a card, advising the publishers to entirely sus- 
pend "all controversy on the exciting subject of slavery." 
The publishers assented to this until Mr. Lovejoy should 
return, when the question was to be laid before him. At 
this time the excitement was further increased by the action 
of gentlemen, who were pronounced by the proprietors of 
the Observer, as "several of the most respectable citizens of 
St. Louis." These "respectable citizens" had caught two 



52 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 

white men, who were suspected of having decoyed away 
slaves, and had taken them two miles back of the city to be 
either whipped or hung for this offence. Only twenty out 
of sixty of these "respectable citizens" voted for hanging, 
and consequently the more merciful punishment, was be- 
stowed of from one hundred to two hundred lashes each. 
These "wealthy and influential citizens," some of whom 
were church-members, took turns in the whipping, and this 
action was thenceforth called proceeding "under the new 
code." Does the reader ask whether such things were 
allowed by the civil authority.^ They were gloried in by 
those who held the power and winked at by civil authority. 

The proprietors of the Observer, Lovejoy being still 
absent, were frightened, and again publicly announced that 
nothing should be advanced in the paper calculated to keep 
up the excitement on the slavery question. 

They stated that they had heard with astonishment and 
regret the rumors of the intended destruction of the Obser- 
ver office, and they "called on all prudent men to pause 
and reflect on the consequences of such a step." The fol- 
lowing letter was addressed to Mr. Lovejoy by some of the 
worthiest gentlemen in the city, including the excellent 
Pastor and two of the Elders of the Second Presbyterian 
Church : 

PROMINENT CITIZENS PUBLICLY COUNSEL LOVEJOY. 
" St. Louis, October 5th, 1835. 
" To the Rev. E. P. Lovejoy, Editor of the Observer. 

"Sir: The undersigned, friends and supporters of the 
Observer, beg leave to suggest, that the present temper 
of the times requires a change in the manner of conduct- 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 53 

ing that print in relation to the subject of domestic slavery. 

"The public mind is greatly excited, and owing to the 
unjustifiable interference of our northern brethren with our 
social relations, the community are, perhaps, not in a situa- 
tion to endure sound doctrine in relation to this subject. 
Indeed, we have reason to believe that violence is even now 
meditated against the Observer office and we do believe 
that true policy and the interests of religion require that 
the discussion of this exciting question should be at least 
postponed in this State. 

"Although we do not claim the right to prescribe your 
course as an editor, we hope that the concurring opinions 
of so many persons, having the interests of your paper and 
of religion, both at heart, may induce you to distrust your 
own judgment, and so far change the character of the 
Observer, as to pass over in silence everything connected 
with the subject of slavery; we would like that you an- 
nounce in your paper your intention so to do. 

"We shall be glad to be informed of your determination 
in relation to this matter. 

"Respectfully, your obedient servants, 

Archibald Gamble, 
Nathan Raxney, 
William S. Potts, 
John Kerr, 
G. W. Call, 
H. R. Gamble, 
Hezekiaii King. 

"I concur in the object intended by this communication. 

"Beverly Allen." 



54 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

"I concur in the foregoing. 

"J. B. Brant." 

More than two years after the date of this letter, and pre- 
cisely two weeks before his death, Lovejoy endorsed upon 
it the following solemn declaration: 

"/ did not yield to the wishes here expressed, and in con- 
sequence /lave bec7i persecuted ever since. But I have kept a 
good conscience in the matter, and that repays me for all I 
have suffered, or can suffer. I have szvoni eternal opposition 
to slavery, and by the blessing of God, I will never go back!' 

"E. P. L. October 24. 1837." 



¥ 



CHAPTER YII. 

Public meeting to oppose the discussion — Lovejoy's defence of 
his course. 

About this time, Oct., 1835, Mr. Lovejoy was falsely 
charged with the mortal offence of transmitting abolition 
newspapers to Jefferson City, boxed and ready for distri- 
bution in Missouri. Agitation, consequently, increased, 
and there was a public meeting on the subject of the course 
pursued by the opposers of slavery, at which the following 
Resolutions, among others, were passed: 

" 2. Resolved, That the right of free discussion and free- 
dom of speech exists under the Constitution, but that be- 
ing a conventional reservation made by the people in their 
sovereign capacity, does not imply a moral right on the 
part of the Abolitionists to freely discuss the question of 
Slavery', either orally or through the medium of the press. 
It is the agitation of a question too nearly allied to the vital 
interests of the slave-holding States to admit of public dis- 
putation; and so far from the fact, that the movements of 
the Abolitionists are constitutional, they are in the greatest 
degree seditious, and calculated to incite insurrection and 
anarchy, and ultimately, a dissevernient of our prosperous 
Union. 

"3. Resolved, That we consider the course pursued by the 
Abolitionists, as one calculated to paralyze every social tie 
by which we are now united to our fellow-man, and that, 
if persisted in, it must eventually be the cause of the dis- 

55 



56 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 

severment of these United States; and that the doctrine of 
amalgamation is pecuHarly baneful to the interests and 
happiness of society. The union of black and white, in a 
moral point of view, we consider as the most preposterous 
and impudent doctrine advanced by the infatuated Aboli- 
tionist, as repugnant to judgment and science, as it is 
degrading to the feelings of all sensitive minds — as de- 
structive to the intellect of after generations, as the advance 
of science and literature has contributed to the improve- 
ment of our own. In short, its practice would reduce the 
high intellectual standard of the American mind to a level 
with the Hottentot, and the United States, now second to- 
no nation on earth, would, in a few years, be what Europe 
was in the darkest ages. 

"4. Resolved, That the sacred writings furnish abundant 
evidence of the existence of slavery from the earliest 
periods. The patriarchs and prophets possessed slaves — 
our Saviour recognized the relation between master and 
slave, and deprecated it not: hence, we know that He did 
not condemn that relation; on the contrary. His disciples, 
in all countries, designated their respective duties to each 
other; Therefore, 

''Resolved, That we consider slavery, as it now exists in 
the United States, as sanctioned by the Sacred Scriptures." 

lovejoy's public defence and reply to the 
citizens' resolutions. 
After the receipt of the letter from Mr. Gamble and 
others, and after the passage in a public meeting of the 
resolutions just recited, Mr. Lovejoy felt impelled to make 
a public appeal to his fellow-citizens in reply, the principal 
portions of which are as follows: 



THE .MARTVRUOM OF LOVEJOY. 5/ 

"November 5x11. 1835. 
" To my Fdlozv-Citizcns : 

"Recent well-known occurrences in this city, and else- 
where, have, in the opinion of some of my friends, as well 
as my own, made it ni}- dut)^ to address ni}'self to you per- 
sonally. And, in so doing, I hope to be pardoned for that 
apparent egotism which, in such an address, is more or less 
unavoidable. I hope, also, to write in that spirit of meek- 
ness and humility that becomes a follower of the Lamb; 
and, at the same time, with all that boldness and sincerity 
of speech which should mark the language of a freeman 
and a Christian minister. It is not my design or wish to 
offend any one, but simply to maintain my rights as a re- 
publican citizen, free-born, of these United States, and to 
defend, fearlessly, the cause of truth and righteousness." 

(Here follows an explanation of his sentiments on the 
subject of slavery, already sufficientl}' indicated.) 

"And now, fellow-citizens, ha\ing made the above expia- 
tion, for the purpose of undeceiving such of you as have 
honestly supposed me in error; truth and candor require 
me to add, that had I desired to send a copy of the 
Emancipator, or of any other newspaper, to Jefferson 
City, I should not have taken the pains to box it up. I 
am not aware that any law of my country forbids my send- 
ing what document I please to a friend or citizen. I know, 
indeed, that mob law has decided otherwise, and that it has 
become fashionable, in certain parts of this country, to break 
open the post-office, and take from it such documents as 
the mob should decide, ought not to pass 2inbnrncd. But I 
had never imagined there was a sufficiency of respecta- 



58 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

bility attached to the proceeding, to recommend it for 
adoption to the good citizens of my own State. And 
grievously and sadly shall I be disappointed to find it 
otherwise. 

"In fine, I wish it to be distinctly understood, that I have 
never, knowingly, to the best of my recollection, sent a 
single copy of the Emancipator, or any other Abolition 
publication, to a single individual in Missouri, or elsewhere; 
while yet I claim the right to send ten thousand of them 
if I choose, to as many of my fellow-citizens. Whether I 
will exercise that right or not, is for me, and not for 
the mob, to decide. The right to send publications of any 
sort to slaves, or in any way to communicate with them, 
without the express permission of their masters, I freely ac- 
knowledge that I have not. Nor do I wish to have it. It 
is with the master alone, that I would have to do, as one 
freeman with another; and who shall say me nay? 

*T come now to the proceedings had at the late meetings 
of our citizens. And in discussing them, I hope not to 
say a single word that shall wound the feelings of a single 
individual concerned. It is with principles I have to do, 
and not with men. And in canvassing them, freely, openly, 
I do but exercise a right secured by the solemn sanction 
of the Constitution, to the humblest citizen of this republic 
— a right that, so long as life lasts, I do not expect to 
relinquish. 

"I freely acknowledge the respectability of the citizens 
who composed the meetings referred to. And were the 
questions under consideration, to be decided as mere 
matters of opinion, it would become me, however much I 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJCV. 59 

might differ from them, to bow in humble silence to the 
decisions of such a body of my fellow-citizens. But I 
can not surrender my principles, though the whole world 
besides should vote them down — I can make no compro- 
mise between truth and error, even though my life be the 
alternative. 

"Of the first resolution passed at the meeting of the 
24th of October, I have nothing to say, except that I per- 
fectly agree with the sentiment, that the citizens of the 
non-slaveholding States have no right to interfere with the 
domestic relations between master and slave. 

"The second resolution, strictly speaking, neither affirms 
nor denies anything in reference to the matter in hand. No 
man has a moral right to do any thing improper. Whether, 
therefore, he has the moral right to discuss the question of 
slavery, is a point with which human legislation or resolu- 
tions have nothing to do. The true issue to be decided is, 
whether he has the civil, the political right, to discuss it or 
not. And this is a mere question of fact. In Russia, in 
Turkey, in Austria, nay, even in France, this right most 
certainly does not exist. But does it exist in Missouri.? 
We decide this question by turning to the Constitution of 
the State. The Sixteenth Section, Article Thirteenth, of 
the Constitution of Missouri, reads as follows: 

"'That the free communication of thoughts and opinions 
is one of the invaluable rights of man, and that every 
person may freely speak, write, and print on any subject, 
being responsible for the abuse of that liberty.' 

"Here, then, I find my warrant for using, as Paul did, all 
freedom of speech. 



60 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

"If I abuse that rii^ht, I freely acknowledge myself 
amenable to the laws. 

"But it is said, that the right to hold slaves is a consti- 
tutional one, and, therefore, not be called in question. I 
admit the premise, but deny the conclusion. To put a 
strong case by way of illustration. The Constitution de- 
clares that this shall be a perpetual Republic; but has not 
any citizen the right to discuss, under that Constitution, 
the comparative merits of despotism and liberty.' And if 
he has eloquence and force of argument sufficient, may he 
not persuade us all to crown him our king.' Robert Dale 
Owen came to this city, and Fanny Wright followed him, 
openly proclaiming the doctrine that the institution of mar- 
riage was a curse to any community, and ought to be abol- 
ished. It was, undoubtedly, an abominable doctrine, and 
one which, if acted out, would speedily reduce society to 
the level of barbarism and the brutes; yet, who thought of 
denying Mr. Owen and his disciple the perfect right of 
avowing such doctrines, or who thought of mobbing them 
for the exercise of this right.' And yet, most surely, the 
institutions of slavery are not more interwoven with the 
structure of our society, than those of marriage. 

"See the danger, and the natural and inevitable result, to 
which the first step liere will lead. To-day, a public meet- 
ing declares that you shall not discuss the subject of 
slavery in any of its bearings, civil or religious. Right or 
wrong, the press must be silent. To-morrow, another 
meeting decides that it is against the peace of society, that 
the principles of Popery shall be discussed, and the edict 
goes forth to muzzle the press. The next day, it is, in a 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 6l 

similar manner, declared that not a word must be said 
against distilleries, dram-shops, or drunkenness. And so 
on to the end of the chapter. The truth is, my fellow- 
citizens, if you give ground a single inch, there is no stop- 
ping place. I deem it, therefore, my duty to take my 
stand upon the Constitution. Here is firm ground — I feel 
it to be such. .\nd I do most respectfully, yet decidedh', 
declare to j'ou my fixed determination to maintain this 
ground. We have slaves, it is true, but / am not one. I 
am a citizen of these United States, a citizen of Missouri, 
free-born; and having never forfeited the inestimable 
privileges attached to such a condition, I can not consent 
to surrender them. But while I maintain them, I hope to 
do it with all that meekness and humility that become a 
I Christian, and especially a Christian minister. I am 
I ready, not to fight, but to sufier, and if need be, to die for 

! them. Kindred blood to that which flows in my veins, 

I 

j flowed freely to water the tree of Christian liberty, planted 

I by the Puritans on the rugged soil of New England. It 

\ flowed as freely on the plains of Lexington, the heights of 

! Bunker Hill, and fields of Saratoga. And freely, too, 

j shall mine flow, yea, as freely as if it were so much water, 

I ere I surrender my right to plead the cause of truth and 

I righteousness before my fellow-citizens, and in the face of 

all their opposers. 

"Of the third resolution I must be allowed to say, that I 

have never seen the least evidence, whatever, that the 

Abolitionists, with all their errors, ha\'e ever desired to 

effect an amalgamation of the two races, — black and white. 

I respectfully ask of the individuals composing the meet- 



62 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

ing that adopted this rcsokition, if they have ever seen 
any such evidence? 

"They have formally, solemnly, and ofticially denied it. 
It is certainly an abhorrent thing even in theory, and a 
thousand times more so in practice. And yet, unless my 
eyes deceive me, as I walk the streets of our city, there 
are some among us who venture to put it into practice. 
And, in the appointment of the numerous committees of 
vigilance, superintendence, etc., methinks that not one of 
them all was more needed than a committee whose busi- 
ness it should be to ferret out, from their secret 'chambers 
of iniquity,' these practical amalgamationists. If He who 
said to the woman taken in adultery, 'Go and sin no 
more,' had stood in the midst of the meeting at our 
Court-House, I will not say that he would there have 
detected a single amalgamator; but I am sure that if a 
poor Abolitionist were to be stoned in St. Louis for holding 
this preposterous notion, and the same rule were to be 
applied that our Saviour used in the case referred to, there 
are at least some amongst us who could not cast a pebble 
at the sinner's head. 

"What shall I, what can I, say of the fourth resolution.? 
It was adopted, in a large assemblage of my fellow-citi- 
zens, with but a few dissenting voices. Many of our most 
respectable citizens voted for it — Presbyterians, Methodists, 
Baptists, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics; those who 
believe the bible is the word of God and those who do 
not, all united in voting for the resolution that the bible 
sanctions slavery as it now exists in the United States. If 
the sentiment had been that the bible sanctions the con- 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 63 

tinuance of the system until proper measures can be taken 
to remove it, I too could adopt it. 

"If I have taken my neighbor's property and spent it, 
and afterwards repent of my sin, and wish to restore what 
I had unjustly taken, but have not the means, the bible 
no longer holds me as a thief, but sanctions my withhold- 
ing the money from my neighbor, until I can. by the use 
of the best means in my power, obtain it and restore it. 
And although, meanwhile, my neighbor, in consequence of 
my original crime, may be deprived of his rights, and his 
family made to suffer all the evils of poverty and shame, 
the bible would still enjoin it upon him to let me alone, 
nay, to forgive me, and even to be content in the abject 
condition to which I had reduced him. Even so the bible 
now says to our slaves, as it said in the days of the apos- 
tles, 'Servants (or slaves), obey in all things your masters 
according to the flesh; not with eye-service, as men- 
pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God.' But then 
it also adds, 'Masters, give unto your servants that which 
is just and equal.' What is meant by 'just and equal' we 
may learn from the Saviour himself: 'All things whatso- 
ever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so 
to them ; for this is the law and the prophets.' Thus far 
the bible. And it will be seen, that in no case does it 
sanction, but the rather, absolutely forbids, all insurrec- 
tionary, all seditious, all rebellious acts on the part of the 
slaves.' But, be it remembered, that, with equal decision 
and authority, it says to the master, 'Undo the heavy 
burden, and let the oppressed go free.' If either disobey 
these injunctions, then it bids us leave the whole matter 



64' THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

with that God who declares: 'Vengeance is mine, I will 
repay, saith the Lord.' 

"But I am not at liberty so to understand the resolution. 
From the preamble, and from conversation with several 
who voted for it, I am compelled to understand the meet- 
in"; as voting; that the bible — the blessed Saviour and his 
holy apostles — sanctions the principle of slavery — the sys- 
tem itself, as such, as it now exists amongst us. 

"Fellow-citizens! I mean not to be disrespectful to you, 
but I declare before you all, I have not words to express 
my utter abhorrence of such a sentiment. My soul detests 
it, my heart sickens over it; my judgment, my understand- 
ing, my conscience, reject it, with loathing and horror. 

"What is the system of slavery 'as it now exists in the 
United States.^' It is a system of buying and selling 
immortal beings for the sake of gain; a system which for- 
bids to man and woman the rights of husband and wife, 
sanctioning the dissolution of this tie at the mere caprice 
of another ; a system which tolerates the existence of a 
class of men whose professed business it is to go about 
from house to house, tearing husband and wife, parent and 
child asunder, chaining their victims together, and then 
driving them with a whip, like so many mules, to a distant 
market, there to be disposed of to the highest bidder. 
And then the nameless pollutions, the unspeakable abom- 
inations, that attend this unfortunate class in their cabins. 
But I spare the details. And this is the system sanctioned 
by the Prince of Mercy and Love, by the God of Holiness 
and Purity! Oh, God! In the language of one of the 
patriarchs to whom the meeting in their resolution refer, 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY 6$ 

I say, 'Oh, my soul, come not thou into their secret, unto 
their assembly mine honour be not thou united!" 

"The fifth resolution appoints a committee of vigilance, 
•consisting of seven for each ward, twenty for the suburbs, 
and seven for each township in the county, — in all, eighty- 
three persons, — whose duty it shall be to report to the 
mayor, or the other civil authorities, all persons suspected of 
preaching Abolition doctrines, etc., and should the civil 
authorities fail to deal with them, on suspicion, why, then, 
the committee are to call a meeting of the citizens and 
execute their decrees — in other words, to lynch the sus- 
pected persons. 

"Fellow-citizens; where are we, and in what age of the 
Avorld do we live? Is this the land of freedom or des- 
potism? Is it the ninth or nineteenth century? Have the 
principles of the letlres dc cachet, driven from Europe, 
crossed the Atlantic and taken up their abode in Missouri? 
\ Louis the XIV. sent men to the Bastile on suspicion; we, 
more humane, do but whip them to death, or nearly so. 
But these things can not last long. A few may be made 
I the innocent victims of lawless violence, yet, be assured, 
I there is a moral sense in the Christendom of the nine- 
I teenth century, that will not long endure such odious- 

transactions. A tremendous reaction will take place. 
j "And remember, I pray you, that as Phalaris was the 

first man roasted in the brazen bull he had constructed for 
I the tyrant of Sicily, so the inventor of the guillotine was by 
no means the last whose neck had practical experience of 
the keenness of its edge. I turn, for a moment, to my fel- 
low-Christians of all Protestant denominations. 

5 



66 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

'' Respected and beloved Fathers and Brethren: As I ad- 
dress myself to you, my heart is full, well-nigh to burstings 
and my eyes overflow. It is indeed a time of trial and 
rebuke. The enemies of the cross are numerous and bold 
and malignant in the extreme. From the situation in 
which the providence of God has placed me, a large por- 
tion of their hatred, in this quarter, has concentrated itself 
on me. You know that now for nearly two years, a con- 
stant stream of calumnies and personal abuse of the most 
viperous kind has been poured upon me, simply because 
I have been your organ through which — I refer now more 
especially to my Presbyterian brethren — you have de- 
clared your sentiments. You know, also, that I have 
never, in a single instance, replied to or otherwise noticed 
these attacks. And now, not only is a fresh attack of 
ten-fold virulence, made upon my character, but violence 
is threatened to my person. Think not that it is because 
I am an Abolitionist that I am so persecuted. They who 
first started this report knew, and still know, better. In 
the progress of events, slavery has, doubtless, contributed 
its share, though a very small one, to the bitterness of 
hatred with which the Observer, and I, as connected with it, 
are regarded. But the true cause is the open and decided 
stand which the paper has taken against the encroachments 
of Popery. This is not only my own opinion, but that of 
others, and indeed of nearly or quite all with whom I have 
conversed on the subject, and among the rest, as I learn, 
of a French Catholic. I repeat it, then, the real origin of 
the cry, ' Down with the Observer,' is to be looked for in its 
opposition to Popery. The fire that is now blazing and 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 6/ 

crackling through this city, was kindled on Popish altars, 
and has been assiduously blown up by Jesuit breath. And 
now, dear brethren, the question is, shall we flee before it, 
or stay and abide its fury, even though we perish in the 
flames? For one, I can not hesitate. The path of duty 
lies plain before me, and I must walk therein, even though 
it lead to the whipping-post, the tar-barrel, or even the 
stake. I was bold and dauntless in the service of sin; it 
is not fitting that I should be less so in the service of my 
Redeemer. He sought me out when there was none to 
help; when I was fast sinking to eternal ruin, he raised m.e 
up and placed me on the Rock of Ages; and now, shall I 
forsake him when he has so {e\v friends and so many ene- 
mies in St. Louis.'' I can not, I dare not, and, his grace 

sustaining me, / zf/// not 

^ * * -x- * * 

" A few words more, and I have done. Fellow-citizens 
of St. Louis, above, you have my sentiments, fully and 
freely expressed, on the great subjects now agitating the 
public mind. Are they such as render me unworthy of that 
protection which regulated society accords to the humblest 
of its members.'' Let me ask you why is it that this storm 
of persecution is directed against me? What have I done? 
Have I libelled any man's person or character? No. 
Have I been found in gambling-houses, billiard-rooms, or 
tippling-shops? Never. Have I ever disturbed the peace 
and quiet of your city by midnight revellings or riots in the 
streets? It is not pretended. Have I ever, by word or 
deed, directly or indirectly, attempted or designed to incite 
your slaves to insubordination? God forbid. I would as 
soon be guilty of arson and murder. * * * 



68 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

" I do, therefore, as an American citizen, and Christian 
patriot, and in the name of Hberty, and law, and rehgion, 
solemnly protest against all these attempts, howsoever or 
by whomsoever made, to frown down the liberty of the 
press, and forbid the free expression of public opinion. 
Under a deep sense of my obligations to my country, the 
church, and my God, I declare it to be my fixed purpose to 
submit to no such dictation. And I am prepared to abide 
the consequences. I have appealed to the constitution 
and laws of my country ; if they fail to protect me, I ap- 
peal to God, and with Him I cheerfully rest my cause. 

" Fellow-citizens, they told me that if I returned to the 
city, from my late absence, you would surely lay violent 
hands upon me, and many of my friends besought me not 
to come. I disregarded their advice, because I plainly 
saw, or thought I saw, that the Lord would have me come. 
And up to this moment that conviction of duty has con- 
tinued to strengthen, until now I have not the shadow of a 
doubt that I did right. I have appeared openly among 
you, in your streets and market-places, and now I openly 
and publicly throw myself into your hands. I can die at 
my post, but I can not desert it. * * * * 

" Humbly entreating all whom I have injured, whether 
intentionally or otherwise, to forgive ihe; in charity with 
all men ; freely forgiving my enemies, even those who thirst 
for my blood, and with the blest assurance, that in life or 
death, nothing can separate me from my Redeemer, I sub- 
scribe myself, 

"Your fellow-citizen, 

" Elija p. LOVEJOY." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Martyr-Spirit as displayed by Mr. Lovejoy — Letter from Mr. 
G. T. M. Davis. 

If we would appreciate correctly the sublime act of 
Lovejoy in issuing the foregoing appeal, from his press, we 
must consider the extreme danger in which he was of 
losing his life thereby. He wrote to his brother that, on 
his way from synod, reports came that the citizens were 
whipping men almost to death, and that no one suspected 
of Abolitionism could live in St. Louis. The Observer had 
been muzzled by its original proprietors. He had been ac- 
cused by name, in one of the city papers, of being an 
Abolitionist, and public vengence had been invoked upon 
him in the bitterest manner. A mob had been raised to 
tear down the Observer office, but had concluded, after as- 
sembling, to defer it a little longer. Men's hearts were 
failing them for fear, and friends had assured him that he 
could not walk the streets with safety, by night or by day. 
His young and sick wife was the only friend that said to 
him, "go, if you think duty calls you." He came into the 
city — where many thirsted for his blood — because after ask- 
ing counsel of God daily, he was strengthened in his convic- 
tions that for him to give way would be a base desertion 
of his post. He wrote: "I was alone in St. Louis, with 
none but God of whom to ask counsel. But, thrice blessed 
be his name, he did not forsake me. I was enabled, de- 
liberately and unreservedly, to surrender myself to him. I 

69 



70 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

thought of mother, of brothers and sisters, and above all, 
of my dearest wife, and felt that I could give them all up 
for Jesus' sake. I think I could have gone to the stake and 
not a nerv'e have trembled, nor a lip quivered. Under the 
influence of these feelings, I wrote and sent forth my ap- 
peal." 

It will be noticed that his "Appeal to Fellow-Citizens" 
was made in a spirit of the utmost kindness. There is not 
the slightest indfcation of a fanatic therein. He could no 
more have been true to his deepest convictions and at the 
same time have avoided St. Louis, than could have Martin 
Luther have avoided Worms, when he declared he would 
go there even " though he should find as many devils as 
there are tiles upon the house-top." This same gentle but 
decided spirit has always characterized the Christian mar- 
tyr. It was strikingly manifested by one of Cromwell's 
common soldiers, who published a remarkable tract during 
the captivity of Charles the First. From this tract Cole- 
ridge has copied the following noble sentiments, which 
accord well with those which Mr. Lovejoy entertained: 

" I judge it ten times more honorable for a single person 
in witnessing a truth to oppose the world in its power, 
wisdom, and authority — this standing in its full strength 
and he singly and nakedly — than fighting many battles by 
force of arms and gaining them all. I have no life but 
truth; and if truth be advanced by my suffering, then my 
life also. If truth live, I live; and these can not die, but 
by any man suffering for them are enlarged, enthroned. 
Death can not hurt me. I sport with him, am above his 
reach." — (The Friend, Essay ist.) 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 7 1 

We can now see what a mistake was committed, when 
citizens of Boston and St. Louis, as well as of other cities, 
supposed it possible to stifle free speech. 

The martyr-spirit of Christ was still enthroned in many 
breasts and could not be cast out by persecution. 

LETTER FROM COL. GEO. T. M. DAVIS, OF NEW YORK. 
Col. Geo. T. M. Davis, who resided at Alton, in 1837, has 
handed me the following account of a little incident illus- 
trating the fearless brav^ery of Mr. Lovejoy: 

"There is no incident in the life of E. P. Lovejoy that 
revealed in brighter hues the moral grandeur of his char- 
acter, and his fearless devotion to principle, than the fol- 
lowing: 
I "A few weeks prior to the assembling of the mob on the 

I 7th of November, 1837, — '" the resistance of whose attack 
j upon Mr. Oilman's building, as well as upon his own life 
j and that of others associated with him, he met his death, — 
\ some eight or ten citizens of Alton, calling themselves of 
\ the highest respectability, determined to tar and feather 
j Mr. Lovejoy, and then send him adrift, in a canoe secured 
I for such purpose, down the Mississippi River. The night 
selected for the consummation of their designs was as 
I bright and clear as could be. Mr. Lovejoy resided at the 
I time at Hunterstown, in a building in a secluded spot 
1 below the road that led to Upper -Alton, and his wife, 
Avhom he idolized, was prostrated upon a bed of sickness, 
Avith but little hope of her physicians or husband that she 
could ever recover. Between ten and eleven o'clock, while 
on his way on foot to the drug- store in Alton, a distance 



72 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

of about three-quarters of a mile from his residence, to 
procure some medicine for his wife, he was met by these 
eight or ten citizens, — all of them disguised, — who stopped 
him in the road, and at once disclosed to him their object 
and purpose. With the most perfect composure and calm- 
ness, he immediately replied to them: 'Gentlemen, I have 
but a single request to make of you. My wife is danger- 
ously ill, and it is necessary she should have this prescrip- 
tion immediately, and which I was on the way to town to 
procure. Will one of you take it and see that it is deliv- 
ered at the house, but without intimating :ivhat is about to 
befall me. I am in the hands of God, and am ready to go 
with you.' 

"For a few moments, entire silence reigned. At last it 
was broken by one of the medical men that made up in 
part the disguised party, exclaiming: 'Boys, I can't lay 
my hand upon as brave a man as this is,' and turning 
away, was followed by the rest, and Mr. Lovejoy was 
spared the degredation of being tarred and feathered,, 
though, a few weeks later, he suffered the death of a mar- 
tyr, in the defence of the liberty of the press and of 
speech. 

"It is a most singular coincidence, that scarcely one of 
those who made up the tar- and -feathering party of that 
night, died a natural death. And, it is still more singular, 
that the one who refused to lay violent hands upon him 
and who saved Mr. Lovejoy at the time, was a Southern 
man." 



CHAPTER IX. 

Lovejoy requested to retire from the editorial chair of the 
"Observer" — The paper sold — He is called back again — 
His comments on the burning of a negro in St. Louis — On 
a charge of Judge Lawless to the Grand Jury. 

The effects of Mr. Lovejoy's noble utterances were "tre- 
mendous," as he wrote to his brother. 

The original proprietors of the Observer waited on him 
and requested him to retire from the editorial chair. For 
two days the result seemed altogether doubtful, but then 
the tide began to turn, and even some who were not in 
sympathy with the religious views of the paper said, "the 
Observer must be sustained or our liberties are gone." He 
wrote to his brother at that time as follows: "The pressure, 
which seemed as though it would crush me to the earth, 
began to lighten. Light began to break in upon the 
gloomiest day I have ever seen. I can not think or write 
about it without my eyes filling with tears, to think of the 
deliverance which God wrought by so weak and unworthy 
an instrument as I am." 

He cheerfully consented to give up editing the Observer, 
at the request of the original proprietors, and thought that 
his work and responsibility were ended. But such was 
not the issue. The paper was in debt, and the proprie- 
tors, — glad to get rid of the elephant on their hands, — 
gave up the press and materials to a Mr. Moore, the 
endorser on a note, soon to fall due. This gentleman ir»- 

7^ 



74 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

sisted on Lovejoy's continuance as editor, with the single 
condition that the paper should be removed to Alton, 
Illinois. 

The citizens of Alton were cordial, — "received him with 
open arms," — but while arrangements were being consid- 
ered for the removal, Lovejoy received a letter signed by 
Mr. Moore and others, abjuring him, "by all means," to 
come back. In consequence of that letter, the project of 
removing the press to Alton was, at that time, abandoned. 
His enemies, discovering that he could not be frightened, 
and that his "appeal" had rallied around him a few friends, 
concluded it wisest to let him alone. A period of com- 
parative quiet ensued, but this was only the calm before 
another storm. 

ARTICLE ON THE BURNING OF A NEGRO AT THE 
STAKE, IN ST. LOUIS. 

In the Observer, of May 5th, 1836, the following article 
appeared in the editorial columns: 

'.'AWFUL MURDER AND SAVAGE BARBARITY. 

"The transactions we are about to relate, took place on 
Thursday, a week ago, and even yet we have not recovered 
from the shock they gav^e us. Our hand trembles as we 
record the story. The following are the particulars, as 
nearly as we have been able to ascertain them from the 
city papers, and from the relation of those who were eye- 
and-ear witnesses of the termination of the awful scene: 

"On the afternoon of Thursday, the 28th ult, an affray 
between two sailors, or boatmen, took place on the steam- 
boat landing. Mr. George Hammond, deputy sheriff, 
and Mr. William Mull, deputy constable, in the discharge 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 75 

of their official duty, attempted to arrest the boatmen for a 
breach of the peace. In so doing they were set upon by a 
mulatto fellow, by the name of Francis J. Mcintosh, who 
had just arrived in the city, as cook, on board the steam- 
boat "Flora," from Pittsburgh. In consequence the boat- 
men escaped, and Mcintosh was arrested for his inter- 
ference with the officers. He was carried before Patrick- 
Walsh, Esq., a justice of the peace for this county, and 
by him committed to jail, and delivered to the same offi- 
cers to be taken thither. 

"On his way, he inquired what his punishment would be, 
and being told that it would not be less than five years' 
imprisonment in the State Prison, he immediately broke 
loose from the officers, drew a long knife and made a des- 
perate blow at Mr. Mull, but fortunately missed him. 

"Unfortunately, however, a second blow, aimed with the 
same savage violence, had better success, and struck Mr. 
Mull Jn the right side, and wounded him severely. He 
was then seized by the shoulder, by Mr. Hammond, where- 
at he turned and stabbed him in the neck. The knife 
struck the lower part of the chin and passed deeply into 
the neck, cutting the jugular vein and the larger arteries. 
Mr. H. turned from his murderer, walked about sixty 
steps, fell and expired ! Mr. M., although dangerously 
wounded, was able to pursue the murderer who had fled, 
until his cries alarmed the people in the vicinit}'. They 
turned out, and without much difficulty secured the blood- 
thirsty wretch and lodged him in jail. 

"The bloody deeds of which Mcintosh had been guilty 
soon became known through the city; and crowds col- 



70 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

lectcd at the spot where the body of Mr. Hammond lay 
weltering in its blood. The excitement was intense, and 
soon might be heard above the tumult, the voices of a few 
exhorting the multitude to take summary vengeance. The 
plan and process of proceeding were soon resolved on. A 
mob was immediately organized and went forward to the 
jail in search of their victim. The sheriff, Mr. Brotherton, 
made some attempts to oppose their illegal violence. Ap- 
prehensive for the fate of his family, who occupied a 
portion of the jail building, he then retired, taking them 
along with him, to a place of safety. Another of our fel- 
low-citizens courageously attempted to reason with the 
angry mob, and to stay them from their fearful proceed- 
ings. When, however, 'he saw that he could prevail 
nothing, but that rather a tumult was made,' being himself 
threatened with violence, he was compelled to retire from 
the place and leave the eiiraged multitude to do their work. 

"All was done with the utmost deliberation and system, 
and an awful stillness pervaded the scene, broken only by 
the sound of the implements employed in demolishing the 
prison doors. Those who have read Scott's description of 
the Porteous mob, as given in the 'Heart of Mid-Lothian,' 
will have an accurate idea of the manner of proceeding at 
the jail, on Thursday night. 

"All was still; men spoke to each other in whispens, 
but it was a whisper which made the blood curdle to hear 
it, and indicated the awful energy of purpose with which 
they were bent upon sacrificing the life of their intended 
victim. Armed persons were stationed as guards to pro- 
tect those cnirajTed in breaking down the doors. 



THK MARTYRDOM OF LOVKJOV. "JJ 

"At length, between eight and nine o'clock at night, the 
cell of the wretch was reached. Loud shouts of execra- 
tion and triumph rent the air as he was dragged forth and 
hurried away to the scene of the burnt sacrifice! Some 
seized him by the hair, some by the arms and legs, and in 
this way he was carried to a large locust tree in the rear 
of the town, not far from the jail. He was then chained 
to the tree with his back against its trunk, and facing to 
the south. The wood, consisting of rails, plank, etc., was 
then piled up before him, about as high as his knees, shav- 
ings and a brand were brought, and the fire kindled! 

"Up to this time, as we are informed, Mcintosh uttered 
not a word; but when the fire had seized upon its victim, 
he begged that some one in the crowd would shoot him. 
He then commenced singing a hymn and trying to pray. 
Afterwards he hung his head and suffered in silence, until 
roused by some one saying that he must be already out ot 
his misery. Upon this, though wrapped in flames, and 
though the fire had obliterated the features of humanity, 
he raised his head and spoke out distinctly, saying: 'No, 
no: I feel as much as any of you, I hear you all; shoot 
me, shoot me.' He was burning about twenty minutes 
before life became extinct. 

" But the tale of depravity and woe is not yet all told. 
After the crowd had somewhat dispersed, a rabble of boys, 
who had attended to witness the horrid rites, commenced 
amusing themselves by throwing stones at the black and 
disfigured corpse, as it stood chained to the tree. The 
object was to see who should first succeed in breaking the 
skull! 



yd> THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

"Such, according to the best information we have been 
able to obtain, is a faithful description of the scene that 
has been transacted in our midst. It has given us pain to 
record it; but, in doing so, we feel, deeply feel, that we are 
fulfilling a solemn duty which, as one of its members, we 
owe to this community, and as an American citizen, to 
our country at large. Let no one suppose that we would 
lightly say a word in derogation of the character of the 
city in which we live; on the contrary, we have, as is natu- 
ral, a strong desire to sustain and vindicate its reputation. 
But when constitutional law and order are at stake, when 
the question lies between justice regularly administered, 
or the wild vengeance of a mob, then there is but one side 
on which the patriot and the Christian can rally; but one 
course for them to pursue. 

"We have drawn the above gloomy and hideous picture, 
not for the purpose of holding it up as a fair representa- 
tion of the moral condition of St. Louis, — for we loudly 
protest against any such conclusion, and we call upon our 
fellow-citizens to join us in such protest, — but that the 
immediate actors in the horrid tragedy may see the work 
of their hands, and shrink in horror from a repetition of it, 
and in humble penitence seek forgiveness of that com- 
munity whose laws they have so outraged, and of that 
God whose image they have, without his permission, wick- 
edly defaced; and that we may all see (and be warned in 
time) the legitimate result of the spirit of mobism, and 
whither, unless arrested in its first out-breakings, it is sure 
to carry us. In Charlestown, it burns a convent over the 
head of defenceless women; in Baltimore, it desecrates the 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJCY. 79 

Sabbath, and works all that day in demolishing a private 
citizen's house; in Vicksburg, it hangs up gamblers, three 
or four in a row; and, in St. Louis, it forces a man — a 
hardened wretch certainly, and one that deserved to die, 
but not thus to die — it forces him from beneath the aegis 
of our constitution and laws, hurries him to the stake and 
burns him alive! 

"It is not yet five years since the first mob, within the 
memory of man (for the French settlers of this city were 
a peaceable people, and their descendants continue so), 
was organized in St. Louis. They commenced operations 
by tearing down the brothels of the city; and the good 
citizens of the place, not aware of the danger, and in con- 
sideration of the good done, aside from the manner ol 
doing it, rather sanctioned the proceeding, at least, they 
did not condemn it. The next thing was to burn our Gov- 
ernor in effigy, because in the discharge of one of the most 
solemn functions belonging to his official character, he 
had not acted in accordance with the public sentiment of 
a part of this community. The next achievement was to 
tear down a gambling-house; and this was done last 
winter. The next and last we need not again repeat. 

"And now we make our appeal to the citizens of this 
community, and wherever else our voice can be heard, and 
ask, and ask with the most heart-felt anxiety, is it not 
time to stop.^ We know that in a case like the present, it 
is difficult to withdraw our thoughts and feelings from the 
great provocation to violence, to be found in the murder- 
ous atrocity of the wretch who has so fearfully atoned for 
his crime. But we do say, and insist, that these considera- 



So THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

tions must not be permitted to enter at all, into our 
reasoning and practice on this point. We 7nust stand by 
the constitution and laws, or all is gone! 

"For ourselves, we do not hesitate to say that we have 
awful forebodings on this subject. Not of St. Louis in 
particular, for the experience of the past year has shown 
that we are 'not sinners above other' cities, — but for our 
whole country. 

"We have, as a nation, violated God's holy Sabbath, 
profaned His holy name, and given ourselves up to covet- 
ousness, licentiousness, and every evil work; and He in 
return seems evidently to be withdrawing the influences of 
His spirit from the land, and leaving us to be 'filled with 
our own devices.' And the consequences are plainly to be 
seen. Men and communities, hitherto peaceable and or- 
derly, are breaking over all restraints of law and shame, 
and deeds are done amongst us which show that man is 
yet a fiend at heart. 

"We visited the scene of the burning, on the day fol- 
lowing, about noon. We stood and gazed for a moment 
or two upon the blackened and mutilated trunk — for that 
was all which remained — of Mcintosh before us, and as 
we turned away, in bitterness of heart, we prayed that we 
might not live. The prayer, and perhaps the feeling 
which dictated it, might be wrong, yet still, after a week's 
reflection, our heart will still repeat it. For so fearful are 
our anticipations of the calamities that are to come upon 
this nation (and which, unless averted by a speedy and 
thorough repentance, we have no more doubt will fall upon 
us, than we have that a God of holiness and justice is our 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 8 1 

supreme governor), that were our work done, and were it 
His will, we would gladly be 'taken away from the evil to 
come.' Meantime, let every Christian, and especially 
every minister of the sanctuary, flee to a throne of grace, 
and standing between the porch and the altar, weeping, 
pray: — 'Spare thy people, oh Lord, and give not thy heri- 
tage to reproach.' " 

LOVEJOY'S SEYERE EDITORIAL COMMENTS ON THE 
CHARGE OF JUDGE LAWLESS. 

In the summer of 1836, there was a certain Judge Law- 
less on the bench at St. Louis. It became his duty to 
charge the grand jury in the matter of the burning of the 
negro Mcintosh. Strange coincidence between name and 
character! Like Mr. Byends, in the "Pilgrim's Progress," 
this foggy-minded gentleman had "the luck of jumping in 
his judgment with the present way of the times." A mob 
had been sanctioned by "most respectable citizens" when 
they whipped white men who were "suspected" of enticing 
away sla\'cs. Now, the Judge would not disapprove the 
act when the offence was the burning of a negro. In this 
charge the ground is openly taken that a crime which, if 
committed by one or two, would be punishable with death, 
may be perpetrated by the multitude with impunity. Says 
the Judge: — "If, on the other hand, the destruction of the 
murderer of Hammond was the act, as I have said, of the 
many, — of the multitude, in the ordinary sense of these 
words, — not the act of numerable and ascertainable male- 
factors, but of congregated thousands, seized upon and 
impelled by that mysterious, metaphysical, and almost 
6 



82 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

electric frenzy, which, in all ages and nations, has hurried 
on the infuriated multitude to deeds of death and destruc- 
tion, — then, I say, act not at all in the matter; the case 
then transcends your jurisdiction — it is beyond the reach 
of human law." 

Commenting on this charge, Mr. Lovejoy wrote, under 
date July 21, 1836: 

"i. In this charge of Judge Lawless we see exempli- 
fied and illustrated the truth of the doctrine we have, for 
years, been endeavoring to impress on the minds of our 
countrymen, viz.: That foreigners educated in the old 
world never can come to have a proper understanding of 
American constitutional law. Judge Lawless is a foreign- 
er, — a naturalized one it is true, but still to all intents 
and purposes a foreigner, — he was educated and received 
his notions of government amidst the turbulent agitations 
of Ireland, and, at a period, too, when anarchy and illegal 
violence prevailed to a degree unprecedented even in the 
annals of that wretched and most unhappy land. Amidst 
the lawless and violent proceedings of those times Mr. 
Lawless grew up. He is next found in arms, in the service 
of France, fighting against the country to whom his alle- 
giance was due. His third appearance, in a public capac- 
ity, is as judge in one of the Republican States of America, 
where he .delivers such a charge to our grand jury as the 
one now under our consideration. 

"We disclaim all wish or intention to wound the feel- 
ings, or injure the personal reputation, of Judge Lawless; 
but we do wish to disarm the monstrous doctrines he has 
promulgated from the bench, of their power, either as a 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. .S^ 

present rule, or a future precedent; and we apprehend 
that when the school, in which the Judge was educated, is 
known and candidly considered, his notions of practical 
justice, at once so novel to Americans, so absurd and so 
wicked, will have little influence with our sound-hearted, 
home-educated Republicans. 

"2. Judge Lawless is a Papist; and in his charge we see 
the cloven foot of Jesuitism peeping out from under the 
veil of almost every paragraph in the charge. What is 
Jesuitism but another name for the doctrine that principles 
ought to change according to circumstances .■* and this is 
the very identical doctrine of the charge. A horrid crime 
must not be punished because, forsooth, it would be diffi- 
cult perhaps to do it. The principles of justice and of 
constitutional law, must yield to a doubtful question of 
present expediency. Doubtless the Judge is not aware 
whence he derived these notions; and yet it cannot be 
doubted that they came originally from St. Omers, where 
so many Irish priests are educated. So true is it, that 
Popery in its very essential principles is incompatible with 
regulated, civil, or religious liberty. Our warning voice on 
this subject is lifted up in vain; but some of those who 
now hear it, will live to mourn over their present incredu- 
lity and indifference. 

"3. In his answer to the remarks of the New York 
Ainc7'ica)i, Judge Lawless intimates that the safety of this 
office is owing to the course he took in this matter. We 
do not believe him; but, if he says true, then what a 
disgraceful truth to St. Louis! What had the Observer 
done? It had told the story of the horrid tragedy enacted 



84 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

here in plain, unvarnished terms, just as the affair occurred. 
No one pretends that our version of the affair was incor- 
rect, and we added nothing more than in tlie spirit of 
earnest and solemn warning;, to entreat our fellow-citizens 
to stay such proceedings, or their all was lost. And for 
this the Judge says, but for his interposition, our office 
would have been destroyed. That is, a mob in St. Louis 
burns a man up. and then citizens tear down the office of 
the press that dares to reprobate such an act. This as- 
sertion of the Judge is a gross libel upon the city, as we 
verily believe. We have never heard of any threats to 
pull down our office, which did not originate with his 
countr\men. I\Iark that.^ 

"But even supposing it true, and that our office Vv-as 
endangered by what we wrote concerning the Mcintosh 
traged}', we desire no such volunteers as Judge Lawless, 
with such principles, to come to our rescue. We reject all 
such. We desire not to be saved at such an expense. To 
establish our institutions of civil and religious liberty, to 
obtain freedom of opinion and of the press, guaranteed by 
constitutional law, cost thousands, yea, tens of thousands 
of valuable lives. And let them not be parted \\ith, at 
least, for less than cost. 

"We covet not the loss of property, nor the honors of 
martyrdom; but better, far better, that the office of the 
Observer should be scattered in fragments to the four 
winds of hea\-en; yea, better that editor, printer, and pub- 
lishers should be chained to the same tree as Mcintosh, 
and share his fate, than that the doctrines promulgated b\' 
Judge Lawless, from the bench, should become prevalent 



TIIK MARTYRDOM OF LOVKJOY. 85 

in this community. For they arc subversive of all law, 
and at once open the door for the perpetration, by a con- 
gregated mob, calling themselves the people, of every 
species of violence, and that, too, with perfect impunity. 

"Society is resolved into its first elements, and every 
man must hold his property and his life at the point of 
the dagger. 

"Having traveled somewhat extensively of late, we have 
had opportunity of learning the impression made abroad 
by recent occurrences in this city. And we know that the 
feeling, excited by this charge of Judge Lawless, is far 
more unfavorable than that consequent upon the burning 
of Mcintosh. 

"'For that,' say they, 'was the act of an excited mob, 
but here is the Judge on his bench, in effect sanctioning it!' 

"The subject grows upon our hands, but VvC forbear. 
We again repeat that we have had no wish, in all we have 
said, to injure the reputation of Judge Lawless. The sub- 
ject is one altogether too important to allow personal 
feelings to enter into the discussion of it, either one way 
or the other. For all that part of his charge, where an 
attempt is made to identify the Observer with Abolitionism, 
and then charge upon that the Mcintosh tragedy, we can 
only say, that we have not the least doubt that the Judge 
is perfectly sincere in the expression of this opinion. And 
the ignorance and prejudice which could lead to such an 
expression of opinion, however censurable in the Judge, is 
still more pitiable in the man. Of this part of the charge, 
Charles Hammond, of the Cincinnati Gazette, says: 'It is 
as fanatical as the highest state of Abolition fanaticism can 
be.' " 



CHAPTER X. 

Removal of the press to Alton — Mob at St. Louis on the occa- 
sion — The press destroyed on its arrival at Alton — The act 
disavowed at a public meeting and money subscribed to 
buy a new press. 

The St. Louis Observer of June 21, 1836, which con- 
tained the foregoing severe criticism of Judge Lawless' 
charge to the grand jury, announced Mr. Lovejoy's inten- 
tion to remove the paper to the then rapidly growing city 
of Alton, in Illinois. This decision was made on pecuni- 
ary grounds chiefly, and not for personal consideration. 
The " new code " had become more popular in St. Louis 
since the day when the two white men had been whipped 
one hundred to two hundred lashes each, by " most respect- 
able citizens." Now a Judge " had bid the law make 
courtesy'to their will," in his charge to the grand jury. It 
was only necessary for them now to fancy that they were 
"seized upon and impelled by a mysterious, metaphysical, 
and almost electric frenzy," in order to elevate their united 
action into a region far above the "jurisdiction of the 
grand jury." This was a most comforting doctrine; 
" Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite, to 
follow as it draws." The way, therefore, was made easy 
to put the "new code" in practice, and the time for doing 
so in the case of the St. Louis Observer was short. 

In a few days the press, the type, and the editor's furni- 
ture were to be shipped to Alton. The " respectable citi- 

86 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 8/ 

zens " must be quick. The Observer office was, therefore, 
entered at St. Louis, and much of the property — including 
part of the editor's furniture — was destroyed and cast into 
the Mississippi River. Wliat vv^as left of the press was 
shipped to Alton, and the editor, with his little family, fol- 
lowed after. 

At this period, the subject of the scrupulous observance 
of Sunda\-, as holy time, was receiving especial and very 
unusual attention. Many Christian merchants in the 
West refused either to travel upon steamboats or to re- 
ceive freight from them on that day. Unfortunately the 
remains of Mr. Lovejoy's St. Louis printing press arrived 
at Alton, and was discharged upon the river bank before 
daylight on Sunday morning. It remained all day, for 
the inspection of the vulgar crowd, and before the next 
morning, it was destroyed and cast into the Mississippi 
River ! 

This act was immediately disavowed at a public meet- 
ing b}' the citizens of Alton, and money was raised to sup- 
ply a new press. Mr. Lovejoy was still in favor of gradual 
emancipation, and at that meeting he avowed himself "the 
uncompromising enemy of slav^ery," though not an Aboli- 
tionist. Ten of the most respectable citizens* of Alton 
testified subsequently that he closed his remarks as follow: 
" But, gentlemen, as long as I am an American citizen, and 
as long as American blood runs in these veins, I shall hold 

* The names of these gentlemen, two or three of whom I believe are still 
living, are: Geo. Walworth, A. B. Roff, Solomon E. Moore, Effingham Cock, 
John \V. Chickering, James Morse, jr., F. \V. Graves, W. L. Chappell, J. H. 
Alexander, Chas. W. Hunter. 



88 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

myself at libery to speak, to write, and to publish whatever 
I please on any subject, being amenable to the laws of my 
country for the same." 

This testimony, certifying what Lovejoy said, was given 
by these gentlemen in consequence of the circulation of a 
false report that, at the meeting above referred to, he had 
pledged himself not to discuss the subject of slavery. No 
candid person, who has read the statements embodied in 
tiiis book, can for a moment believe that Elijah P. Lovejoy 
ever could have made a pledge of that sort. 

Lovejoy's new press soon arrived, and on September 8, 
.1836, the first number of the Alton Observer wa^s issued. 
It continued to be issued regularly until August 17, 1837, 
soon after which it again became the object of mob violence. 
During this period of comparative quiet, Lovejoy took the 
same bold, uncompromising stand against slavery and cor- 
ruption, yet treating all opponents fairly and kindly. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Lovejoy's letters and editorial articles at this time — His heroic 
wife — His view of Slavery — The cry of Amalgamation — 
The right application of the Gospel — The doctrines of 
anti-slavery men. 

In the sickly summer of 1836, Lovejoy and his delicate 
wife both suft'ered so much that, at times, his trials seemed 
everpowering. The following extract is from a letter 
dated August 31, 1836, to his mother: " Why, when my 
services are so much needed, I shall be laid up on a bed of 
sickness, I can not tell; why, when God has, in his wise and 
holy providence, let loose upon me angry and wicked men, 
he should also so heavily lay his own hand upon me, I 
can not see, but he can, and I desire to submit without a 
murmur. I can now fed, as I never felt before, the wis- 
dom of Paul's advice not to marry; and yet I would not 
be without the consolations which my dear wife and child 
afford me for all the world. Still I can not but feel that it 
is harder to ' fight valiantly ' for the truth, when I risk not 
only my own comfort, ease, and reputation, and even life, but 
also that of another beloved one. But in this I am greatly 
favored. My dear wife is a perfect heroine. Though of 
delicate health, she endures affliction more calmly than I 
had supposed possible for a woman to do. Never has 
she, by a single word, attempted to turn me from the 
scene of warfare and danger; never has she whispered a 
feeling of discontent at the hardships to which she has 

89 



90 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

been subjected in consequence of her marriage to me, and 
those have been neither few nor small, and some of them 
peculiarly calculated to wound the sensibility of a woman. 
She has seen me shunned, hated, and reviled, by those who 
were once my dearest friends ; she has heard the execra- 
tions wide and deep upon my head, and she has only clung 
to me the more closely and more devotedly. When I told 
her that the mob had destro}'ed a considerable portion of 
our furniture, along with their other depredations, 'No 
matter,' said she, ' what they have destroyed since they 
have not hurt you.' Such is woman! and such is the wo- 
man whom God has given mc.* And now do you ask, 
are you discouraged.^ I answer promptly, no. I have 
opened my mouth for the dumb, I have plead the cause 
of the poor and oppressed, I have maintained the rights of 
humanity, and of nature outraged in the person of my fel- 
low-men around me, and I have done it, as is my nature, 
openly, boldly, and in the face of day, and for these things 
I am brought into these straits. P'or these things I have 
seen my family scattered, my office broken up, my furni- 
ture — as I was moving it to this place — destroyed; have 
been loaded with execrations, had all manner of evil 
spoken of me falsel}-, and finally, had my life threatened, 

* Her maiden name was Celia Ann French, and her former residence was 
St. Charles, Missouri. She was a fragile and beautiful girl of 21, when he 
married her in 1835. She died some years since, without ever having entirely 
recovered from the trials of 1837. liefore her death, she became quite poor, 
passed several days at my house, a broken-down, prematurely-old person, pos- 
sessed of scarce a trace of her early beauty. The prophecy regarding Iier, 
made in 1837, that " her strong heart would break down her physical frame," 
was, indeed, most sadly verified, H. T. 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 9 1 

and laid down at night, weary and sick, with the expecta- 
tion that I might be aroused by the stealthy step of the 
assassin. This was the case the last night I spent at St. 
Louis. Yet none of these things move me from my pur- 
pose; by the grace of God I will not, I will not forsake my 
principles; and I will maintain and propagate them with 
all the means he puts into my hands. The cry of the 
oppressed has entered not only into my ears but into my 
soul, so that while I live I can not hold my peace." 
HIS VIEW OF SLAVERY. 
In a letter to the Christian Mirror, dated Alton, Febru- 
ary 9, 1837, ^Ii'- Lovejoy expressed profound regret that 
several of the most prominent religious newspapers were 
then sending to their hundred thousand readers "partial 
and injurious representations of the character and motives 
of those engaged in freeing the slave from bondage, while 
their columns were hermetically sealed to all reply or con- 
futation." He added: 'Tf the wisdom of the schools can 
not teach you the true character of slavery, come with me, 
and let us interrogate yonder illiterate, untaught slave. 
He is just returning, faint and weary, from the toils of the 
day. He is an aged man, and has had, for many years, a 
practical acquaintance with slavery. Let us hear his reply 
to the question, 'What is Slavery.^' Tt is to have my 
back subjected to the cowhide, or the cart-whip, at the will 
or caprice of my master, or any of his family. Every 
child has a right to curse, or kick, or cuff the old man. It 
is to toil all day beneath an almost vertical sun, with the 
bitter certainty always before me, that not one cent of 
what I earn is, or can be, my own. It is to depart from 



92 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

my hut every morning with the sickening fear, that before 

I return at night, it will be visited by the slave-driving 

fiend. It is to return at night, and find my worst fears 

' realized. My first-born son, denied even the poor privilege 

^ of bidding his father farewell, is on his way, a chained and 

/ manacled victim, to a distant market, there to be disposed 



1 of in shambles, where human flesh and sinews are bought 

' and sold. It is to enter my cabin, and see my wife or 

daughter struggling in the lustful embraces of my master, 
or some of his white friends, without daring to attempt 
their rescue; for should I open my lips to remonstrate, a 
hundred lashes would be the consequence; and should I 
raise my hand to smite the brutal wretch, nothing but 
death could atone for the sacrilege. But above all, to be 
a slave, i^ to be denied the privilege of reading the gospel 
of the Son of God, to have no control over my own chil- 
dren, and, consequently to be deprived of the power and 
means of educating them in the principles of morality and 
religion. In one word, it is to be degraded from a man to 
a brute, — to become, instead of a free moral agent, a 
thing, a piece of property, and to be used as such — to be 
deprived of all personal and all civil rights — to be shut 
out from all enjoyment in this world, and all hope in the 
next.' Such, brother Cummings, is slavery; not that 
slavery such as you may imagine or hope might exist, but 
slavery as it actually now exists in eleven of these United 
States, nay, such as it exists in the church." 

THE CRY OF "AMALGAMATION." 
The Baptist Banner, published in 1837, ^'^ Louisville, 
Kentucky, charged the Abolitionists with the advocacy of 



THE MARTYRDOM 93 

intermarriage between whites . ..s! — "the union of 

persons that God by color, h .az asunder, as much as 
He has separated midnight liom noonday." Mr. Lovejoy 
answered his brother editor as follows: (It was believed 
that facts fully justified the illustration of amalgamation 
to which Mr. Lovejoy alluded.) 

"The Abolitionists are beginning every where to throw 
off the mask, and boldly to advocate amalgamation; that 
is, the intermarriage of whites and blacks! — -the union of 
persons that God by color, has put asunder, as much as he 
has separated midnight from noonday!" — Baptist Banner. 

"Now, brother, of the Banner, stop a moment, and do 
not go off at half- charge, as you are somewhat apt to do. 
Let us reason together a moment, — only for a moment. 

"In the first place, we ask you for the proof of the above 
statement. We deny its truth. We read most of the 
Abolition publications in the land, and we have never seen 
any such position taken by any one of them. Bring for- 
ward your proof, therefore, or acknfowl'^dge yourself mis- 
taken, and that you have borne false witness against your 
neighbor. 

"But secondly, if God has put the black and white races 
so far asunder, how happens it that they come together so 
readily in the State where you live.*' Is not the Vice- 
President of these United States, and one of your own 
citizens, an 'amalgamator,' as you phrase it.' Are not his 
'amalgamated' daughters among you, respectably married 
to men of pure Saxon blood — the sons of chivalrous Ken- 
tucky.' 

"Moreover, go out into the streets of Louisville, the 



94 'I'HE MARTVRUOM OF LOVEJOY. 

city of your residence, and where there are no Abolition- 
ists, and tell me how many individuals among all the 
colored population that throng your streets, you can find 
whose faces shine with the pure gloss of an African com- 
plexion. Such persons are about as scarce in St. Louis as 
black swans are on the Mississippi, and we suspect the 
case is pretty similar in Louisville. 

"Now, if this amalgamation must go on — certainly the 
taste of those individuals who practically favor it, is widely 
different from ours, but you know the old proverb, brother, 
De giistibus, etc. — if, then, it must go on, had it not better 
be so regulated as that it shall, in future, be in accordance 
with the divine as well as human law, rather than, as now, 
in contravention to both.'' 

"If, for instance, an individual in Kentucky, like your 
illustrious citizen, the Vice-President, should prefer the 
daughters of Ham rather than the daughters of Japheth, 
from whom to choose a wife, why should we who prefer 
the latter be restricted to one, while he is allowed a dozen, 
and indeed a whole harem, if he please } And why, when 
we are bound to love, cherish, and maintain our wives till 
death, should he be allowed the privilege of making 
'merchandise' of his, and their children too, just as caprice 
or avarice may dictate.' 

"Will the Banner answer these questions satisfactorily, 
if he can,* to his own conscience; and if he can not, 'be 
ashamed and confounded, and never open his mouth more' 
about the 'amalgamation' of Abolitionists.'*" 

THE RIGHT APPLICATION OF THE GOSPEL. 

Lovejoy was once opposed to the discussion of slavery! 



THE MARTYRD. x. 95 

In 1835, he had advanced tL ..ic position of a coloniza- 
tionist, and favored the gradual emancipation of the slaves. 
Now, in 1837, he had further changed, and had come into 
sympathy with immediate Abolition. 

Does the reader judge he was unstable.^ He was one 
of the stablest of men ; but he possessed also the qualities 
which have been claimed to be the most fruitful gifts oi 
genius, — "openness and simplicity of mind, a readiness to 
entertain and a willingness to accept, and enthusiastically 
to pursue, a new idea." 

It was because of his superiority, therefore, that his 
opinions grew, and this raised him above all fear of the 
charge of inconsistency. He now believed that the cor- 
rupt tree could not possibly be made to produce good 
fruit, and that the gospel must be appHed to cut it down 
at the roots rather than to lop off the branches. 

The following article on the subject of the "Right Rem- 
edy," was published at Alton, March 16, 1837: 

"We frequently hear from many good brethren the re- 
mark, that whatever may be the evils of slavery, the way 
to remedy them, is 'to preach the gospel.' In opposition 
to efforts made by anti-slaver\- societies, and anti-slaver>'' 
presses, they say: 'If the gospel will not effect it Cthe 
abolition of slavery), we despair of any instrumentality 
whatever.' 

"We would respectfully ask these brethren, what they 
mean by such remarks as these.' We agree with them 
most cordially, that the gospel of the Son of God is the 
remedy for slaver\'. But how.' They certainly will not 
say, that it will prove this remedy as administered by 



96 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

those, their mhiisterial brethren, who maintaui that the 
bible sanctions slavery, makes it right, and places it on 
the same footing, in its code of morals, as the domestic 
relations of husband and wife, parent and child? Not in 
such hands will the gospel prove a remedy for the evils of 
slavery. 

"But how much more good can it effect, when used by 
those who, notwithstanding they admit the remedy to be 
a good one, uniformly decline applying it, for fear of irri- 
tating their patients? 

" How long will it take the gospel to work a cure, if it is 
never applied to the diseased part? Will these brethren 
tell us? They seem to imagine there is some magic power 
about the preaching of the gospel, that is to do away with 
slavery, while yet the authorized and accredited ministers 
of the gospel never open their lips to delare that slavery is 
condemned by it. If they do not mean this, we should be 
glad to know what it is they mean, by their constantly re- 
peating/the gospel is the remedy, the gospel is the reme- 
dy'; while as yet they are as constantly condemning the 
conduct of those who seek to make it the remedy indeed, 
by proclaiming it to be, in all its principles and precepts, 
opposed to slavery. 

"The Rev. James Douglass, whom we have known, and 
whom we highly respect as a devoted servant of Christ, in 
a communication to the Boston Recorder, which other east- 
ern papers are copying, has much of this indcfiniteness of 
view about the gospel proving a remedy for slavery. He 
would have anti-slavery men, instead of persisting in their 
present efforts to abolish slavery, send ministers to the 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 9/ 

South, to 'preach the gospel,' to both masters and shives. 
'For,' says he, 'where reHgion flourislies, slaves are well- 
treated.' Aye, there's the very point. And this, then, is 
all the gospel, as preached at the South, is able or expect- 
ed to effect — the good treatment of the slave. Now,, we 
wish to aid in the preaching of no 'gospel' whose ultimate 
aim, as it respects the slaves, goes no farther than this. 
The 'gospel of the Son of God' requires not the 'good 
treatment' of the black man as a slai'c, but as a man, and 
a moral and accountable being; and the very first step in 
this good treatment is to SET HIM FREE. Take an illus- 
tration of our meaning: 

" When the apostle Paul went out into the Gentile 
world to 'preach the gospel,' he found his hearers all idol- 
aters. He moreover found that in the practice of this 
idolatry, the most shameful rites abounded. The heathen 
of both sexes were accustomed to spend their nights in 
the temples of their idols, in promiscuous, and most dis- 
gusting licentiousness. Now, suppose he had commenced 
preaching the gospel to these polluted idolaters in this 
way: 'I will not, oh men of Athens and Corinth, require 
too much of you at once. I will say nothing of the divine 
honors you pay to Jupiter, and Mars, and Mercury, and 
Venus, and your other innumerable gods and goddesses; 
but I do require, in the name of my Master, that, when 
you worshi}) these deities, and especially the latter, you 
should do it in a little more respectable and decent 
manner. If you will cease these, your midnight orgies in 
the temples of your gods, and prosecute their worship no 
farther than to offer them daih' libations, and to prostrate 

7 



98 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

yourselves before their imaj^cs, it is, I think, all the gospel 
requires of you at present. And for the rest, if indeed 
this be not sufficient, I leave you to learn it from my 
successor, Timothy.' And thus had the apostle Paul un- 
derstood the 'preaching of the gospel,' as many of his 
modern successors seem to do, Christ would have died, 
not to abolish idolatry, but to 'remedy its evils,' and thus 
make it respectable! At least, this could have been the 
only result for two or three centuries after his departure 
from the world. If it be said that because we can not 
abolish slavery at once, that is no good reason why we 
should not rejoice to see, and, as far as in us lies, endea- 
vor to effect the amelioration of the condition of slaves, 
as slaves, we admit the correctness of the remark. When 
Paul was preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, he would 
undoubtedly be glad to see the heathen quitting their 
licentious practices, even though they did not go so far as 
to abandon their idols. This was so much good effected; 
and so we are glad to see slave-holders treating their 
slaves with kindness, teaching them to read the Bible 
(which, however, they hardly ever do), sending them to 
the Sabbath-school and the church, l^ut what we are 
protesting against, is the idea that the gospel is satisfied 
and its precepts fulfilled, when these things, and only these, 
are done. If you rob a man of ten dollars, it is better you 
should spend the money in disseminating copies of the 
bible, than of 'Tom Paine's Age of Reason'; but doing 
the former will no more justify the original theft than the 
latter. The gospel has no method of teaching the robber 
how to dispose of the avails of his violence, so that he may 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJCY, 99 

retain them without sin. It has, and can have, but one 
precept in the case, — 'Restore what thou hast wickedly 
taken.' So, if the gospel is to be preached to the masters 
of slaves, all it can say is, 'Restore the slave to himself; 
give him back those rights which belong to him, as he is 
man, and which can not be taken away, without robbing 
both him and his God.' " 



CHAPTER XII. 

The beginning of the end — The summer of 1837 — Petitions for 
the aboHtion of Slavery in the District of Columbia — Call 
for the formation of the Illinois Anti-Slavery Society — Love- 
joy's most obnoxious editorial article. 

I have now brought the reader to a point in the mid- 
summer of 1837, when men's brains were at fever heat on 
the subject of slavery — to a period only about four months 
prior to the end of our hero's life-work! At that time, the 
great State of Illinois contained only about four hundred 
thousand inhabitants! Chicago was estimated at less than 
four thousand! and Alton, not far from the same number. 
The inhabitants of this latter city were not only prodig- 
iously enterprising, expecting it to become a metropolis, 
but were foremost in furthering all moral and religious 
reforms. 

P^-om New York, they had drawn Timothy Turner, then 
as effective a temperance lecturer as could be found. They 
were sending forth through the West each month about 
six thousand copies of the Illinois Temperance Herald, a 
large newspaper filled with stimulating thought promotive 
of that cause, and at further large expense, they had in- 
duced A. W. Corey* to settle at Alton and become its 
editor. 

* A. W. Corey, whilst editor of the Temperance Herald, provoked heated 
opposition in St. Louis, by his bold denunciation of the liquor traffic. At 
one time, after a scathing article on this subject, he published the names of all 
the wholesale grocers at St. Louis, who sold liquors, charging them with par- 

100 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. lOI 

Revivals of religion were so universal about that time, 
that many, in their fervent zeal, expected the dawn of the 
millennium was at hand. Great preachers were attracted 
to Illinois, among them, the celebrated Gideon Blackburn, 
of Kentucky; James Gallagher, from Tennessee, and many 
others. Ten young divinity students at Yale College 
banded together to settle in Illinois, with high hopes of 
eminent usefulness. The late Rev. Theron Baldwin, well 
known both East and West, was one of these. 

A missionary spirit pervaded the minds of thousands in 
the State. In the East, the excitement was quite as great 
on moral subjects. 

William Lloyd Garrison had faced the bitter opposition 
of the sympathizers with the South, and had partially tri- 
umphed over the attempts made to silence his voice. 

He had been mobbed, put in prison, and dragged through 
the streets of Boston with a rope around his body! Five 
thousand dollars reward was offered by the Legislature of 
Georgia for his conviction under law. 

John Ouincy Adams, late President of the United States, 

ticipating in a common crime. Many, in their fury, would have been glad to 
have wiped out of existence not only th^ Observer, but also the Temperance 
Herald, with their editors, printers, and offices, as nuisances in societ)'. Pioth 
Turner and Corey afterwards settled at Godfrey, 111., four miles nortli of 
Alton, where the former closed his very useful life. Mr. Corey — one of the 
best of Christian gentlemen — is living there still, at the age of about 75. 

Many thousands of Sunday-Schools owe their origin to the effective labors 
of Mr. Corey and to his astonishing executive ability. For thirty years, he 
acted as agent for the Sunday-School Union, in the West. It is particularly 
interesting to me to recall the fact that he was cordially with us in our defence 
of" Mr. Lovejoy's rights in 1837. 11. T. 



I02 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVE JOY. 

"with unwavering firmness against a bitter and unscrupu- 
lous opposition," had presented petitions against slavery 
in the House of Representatives. The excitement was so 
great, and the Southern members so much exasperated by 
Mr. Adams's pertinacity — for, at times, he presented these 
petitions, one by one, to the extent of one hundred to two 
hundred a-day — that he had to meet "a perfect tempest 
of vituperation and abuse." For report of proceedings 
which give a fair indication of the state of feeling, see 
chapter xxiv.. 

Then Texas had been wrested from Mexico by the aid 
of slaveholders, in order to bring that wide region into the 
Union, for the purpose of increasing slave territory, and 
maintaining the preponderance of Southern influence in 
Congress. 

Opposition to the project created the bitterest feelings 
among free-soil men at the North. 

Although it may seem strange now, there was good 
reason then why Lovejoy should maintain his position at 
Alton. Patriotic defenders of free speech were decided in 
their advice to him to stand firmly to the last, irrespective 
of the consequences. It is necessary to bear in mind this 
actual condition of things in the United States, in order to 
comprehend the fact that Mr. Lovejoy was firm, but not 
obstinate. 

He always manifested a disposition to weigh carefully 
and candidly the counsel of friends. 

Lovejoy's paper had nearly doubled its circulation by 
the removal to Alton, which fact he knew was attributable 
to his decided course. It was not strange, therefore, that. 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. IO3 

by request, he consented to issue the followhig call to all 
friends of the slave in Illinois, asking them to canvas their 
neighborhood in order to secure signatures to petitions for 
the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. 
" DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PETITIONS. 

" We have received from the secretary of the American 
A nti- Slavery Society, a communication requesting that we 
would endeavor to forward to them, as soon as possible, 
the names of two individuals in every county of the State, 
who will be disposed to receive and circulate petitions to 
Congress for the abolition of slavery in the District of 
Columbia. 

"We shall send on such names as we are able to designate 
by our own knowledge, immediately; but as there are 
many counties in the State where we have no acquaint- 
ance, we take this method of asking the attention of all 
the friends of humanity to the subject. We suggest the 
follo\\ing: 

"I. Let all such individuals as are willing to undertake 
this work, forward their names to us, immediately, free ot 
postage, stating particularly their county, and post-office 
address. 

"2. Where the individual so writing is unknown to us, 
let him name some respectable individual in this place to 
whom we can refer, or if he can not do this, in some other 
way forward to us satisfactory credentials. This is abso- 
lutely necessary to guard against imposition. 

"3. Let every individual who volunteers to engage in this 
work of circulating petitions, do it with the full understand- 
ing that it will cost him some time, some trouble, and the 



104 'i"iIE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 

good-will of every advocate of slavery. And if he is not 
willing to undertake the business at this expense, he had 
better not attempt it at all. And, moreover, let each one 
sending his name, send also the names of such other in- 
dividuals, in his own or adjoining counties, as he may think 
willing and qualified to circulate these petitions with zeal 
and success. 

"We need not add a word touching the vast importance 
of this subject. With slavery in the several States we have 
nothing to do, except in the wa}^ of argument and per- 
suasion; but let every free man in this republic remember 
that so long as slavery exists in the District of Columbia, 
he is himself a slaveholder, and a licenser of the horrid 
traffic in slaves, carried on under the very shadow of the 
capitols walls. We have a right to interfere there, and 
that right brings with it a solemn duty, which we may not 
innocently neglect." — Observer, June 2g, i8jj. 

The opposition which this call provoked among South- 
ern men who had settled at Alton was great, but it was 
excessively increased the following week when he pre- 
sented to his readers reasons for forming, without further 
delay, an Illinois State Anti-Slavery Society. 

To the concurrent advice of many ministerial friends, 
the publication of this — the most obnoxious of all his edi- 
torials — is due. It appeared on July 6, 1837, just after a 
great Temperance and Sunday-School celebration at Alton, 
in which leading citizens of various shades of opinion had 
harmoniously participated: 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. I05 

"ILLINOIS STATE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 
(TJic most obnoxious of Mr. Lovejoys articles.) 

"Is it not time that such a society should be formed? 
There are many, very many, friends of the cause in this 
State, and their number is daily increasing. Ought not 
measures to be taken to embody their influence so as to 
make it tell with the greatest possible effect upon the holy 
cause of emancipation .-* 

"We would do nothing rashly, but it does seem to us that 
the time to form such a society has fully come. There are 
a number of local societies already existing in the State, 
and it would be every way better that their influence should 
be concentrated. If it be decided that such a society 
ought to be formed, when and where shall the convention 
meet to form it.^ Shall it be at this place, or at Jackson- 
ville, or Springfield, or elsewhere.'' 

"We take the liberty to throw out these questions for the 
consideration of our friends, and we suggest the propriety 
of their giving to them a speedy and candid consideration. 
Let as many as are in favor of the measure here proposed, 
send us their names, for the purpose of having them at- 
tached to the call of the proposed convention, and let each 
one indicate the time and place of his preference for the 
meeting of the convention, with the express understanding 
that that place shall be selected which has the most votes 
in its favor. 

"We shall hope to have a response from the friends of 
the slave without delay. Every day do we feel more and 
more the necessity of action, decided and effective action, 
on this subject. With many, we are already a 'fanatic' 



I06 THE MARTYRDOM OF' LOVEJOY. 

and an 'incendiary,' as it regards this matter, and we 
feel that we must become more and more vile in their 
eyes. 

"We have never felt enough, nor prayed enough, nor 
done enough, in behalf of the perishing slave. 

"This day (the 4th) reproaches our sloth and inactivity. 
It is the day of our nation's birth. Even as we write, 
crowds are hurrying past our window, in eager anticipation, 
to the appointed bower, to listen to the declaration that 
■"all men are born free and equal'; to hear the eloquent 
orator denounce, in strains of manly indignation, the at- 
tempt of England to lay a yoke upon the shoulders of our 
fathers, which neither they nor their children could bear. 
Alas! what bitter mockery is this. We assemble to thank 
God for our own freedom, and to eat and drink with joy 
and gladness of heart, while our feet are upon the necks of 
nearly three millions of our fellow- men! Not all our 
shouts of self-congratulation can drown their groans — even 
that very flag of freedom that weaves over our heads is 
formed from materials cultivated by slaves, on a soil mois- 
tened by their blood, drawn from them by the whip of a 
republican task- master! 

"Brethren and friends, this must not be — it can not be — 
for God will not indure it much longer. Come, then, to the 
rescue. The voice of three millions of slaves calls upon 
you to come and ' unloose the heavy burdens, and let the 
oppressed go free!' And on this day, when every free- 
man's heart is glad, let us remember that — 
" 'Wearily every bosom pineth, 
Wearily, oh! wearily, oh ! 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. lO/ 

Where the chains of slavery twineth, 
Wearily, oh! wearily, oh! 
There the warrior's dart 

Hath no fleetness, 
There the maiden's heart 

Hath no sweetness. 
Every flower of life declineth, 

Wearily, oh! wearily, oh! 
Wearily — wearily — wearily — 
Wearily — we:irily — wearily, oh! 

Wearily, oh! wearily, oh!'" 



(.'IIAPTKR XIU. 
The "Markrf-l h)ust'" nuTtiiii;, for the "su])) session of Abolition- 
ism" — ComiiK'iHs of till- St. lA)iiis pross. 

Two il.iys after L(n"ojo\''s article, iwoniuKMuliiii;" tin- 
ioiinatioii o[' a Stall" .AiUi-Sl.iv imv Society, lor Illinois, an 
anonynu>ns hanilhill was postcil about ibc city, c.illing on 
tho'^i' who ilisapproxctl tlu- cmirsc of tbc .\lto)t Obscrviv 
to nu'i't at tbc public luaikct on Jul\- ii, iS^/. Of course 
tins ibi'w toL;i>tber a niotU-y crowil, with .-i few respectable 
citizens, Ihe man who calK-il the nun-tini;' to oriler said 
that it was "(or the suppiession of ;\bolitionisni." 

I'he preamble ailopteil on the occasion, — written by 
some one wlu^ was neither correct in i^rammar nor sound 
in sense, referreil t(,> the "spirit k^{ an insvilted people 
brewiiii,^ like a cloud and ilarkenini; our social atmosphere." 
It alhuleil, in hi>^htlown lani;uaL;e, to the citi/.ens present, 
as iKuiiii; mot "tooi^pose, in a manly manner, this modern 
misrule," — met as "freemen, unseduced by mercenary 
moti\i's," etc. 

ResolutiiMis were passed disappnivinq; I\Ir. Lovejoy's 
cinu'se, and ialsel\- claimiui; that the man who hail aq;ain 
and ai;ain announceil that he was reaii\- to die rather than 
surrender the rij^ht of free speech, had pledged himself not 
to discuss the subject K^'i shuery! 

Dr. H. K. Hart. L. j. CMawson, N. Kuckmaster. A. 
Olney, and Pr. J. A. llalderman, were appointed a com- 
mittee to w.iit on, .uul confer with, Mr. Lovejoy, "and 

loS 



TIIK MAKrVI;l)'»M Ol' T.DVKjrjV. IO9 

ascertain vvhctlicr he intends to disseminate tlirf)U[^h the 
columns of tlie OOscnu-r the doctrine of AboUtionisni, anri 
report tlie result of ihcjr conference to the publii ?" One 
of the risohitions rejjorted as "c:or(hally adopted," vv;is 
presented by ("ol. A. I'otl.iii. It referred to I.ovejoyas 
"persisting to puljh'sh an y\bohtion pa[)er, to the injury (A 
the community," and whilst de[)recatin^ the remedy of a 
mob, he very si^mificantly called on Mr. f.ovejoy to "dis- 
continue //is iiuriniidry fuihliralidiis!' An atlcmpt was 
made to add the name of the late i'enjamin l\<sfiilm;in 
to the committee, but he declined th<- honor, and they jiro- 
ceeded in their business without him. 

The committei; did not seem to relish the- idea of a con- 
ference with Lovejoy, and ne{.(l(;cte'd to call upon him. 
After nine days had j)assed, Mr. Lovejoy published an 
article c.;d(:ulatcd to enh;.diten the minds of these ^,'_eiitl( - 
men. it was entillid, "What are the Ooctrines of Anti- 
Slavery Men.'" 

J'Our days subsefjuent tf) this, tin; Market- House (Com- 
mittee succeeded in ^ettiu;^ their letter to Lovejoy ready. 
Without delay Mr. Lovcjf)y replied, with ^reat kindness 
and suavity, stating that he C(Hild not recfj^nize the-ir ri^ht 
to question him on the liberty of free speech, and he refer- 
red them to his artich* just mentioned, which follows: 

wiiAi .\ki; 'iiii', i^oei i:i,\i...s ()!■ ,\.\"ii-.siw\vi;kv mi;n.? 

"A youn<4 man had become exceedingly an^ry with an 
ancient philosopher, and had raised his cane to strike him. 
'.Strike,' said the philosopher, 'strike, but hear me.' He 
listened, anrl wa-. convinced. There- is not, ])robablv, an 



no THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

individual, who reads this, tliat can not recollect some in- 
/ stance in his life, in which his strong opposition to certain 

measures and principles, he now sees, was entirely owing 
to groundless and unreasonable prejudices; and he is a 
fortunate man who can recollect but one such instance. 
In respect to the subject now to be discussed, the writer 
frankly confesses no one of his readers can possibly be 
more prejudiced, or more hostile to anti-slavery measures 
or men, than he once was. And his, too, were honest, 
though, alas! how mistaken, prejudices. They arose partly 
from the fact that the 'new measures' came directly in 
contact with his former habits of thought and action, and 
partly, and chiefly, from the strange and astonishingly 
perverted representations given of leading men and their 
principles, in this new movement. We recollect no in- 
stance of parallel misrepresentation, except the charge 
brought against Christ of casting out devils by Beelzebub, 
the prince of devils. These misrepresentations were start- 
ed by a few, and honestly believed by the many. They 
still prevail to a very great extent. Very probably some 
of our readers may be under their influence more or less. 
We ask them to be candid with themselves, and if they 
find this to be the case, to make an effort to throw them 
off, and come to the perusal of what follows, ready to em- 
brace the truth wherever it is found. For truth is eternal, 
unchanging, though circumstances may, and do, operate 
to give a different color to it, in our view, at different 
times. And truth will prevail, and those who do not yield 
to it must be destroyed by it. What, then, are the doc- 
trines of anti-slavery men ? 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJCV. I I 1 

"FIRST PRINCIPLES. 

"I. Abolitionists hold that 'all men are born free and 
equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
rights, among which are life, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of 
happiness.' They do not believe that these rights are 
abrogated, or at all modified, by the color of the skin, but 
that they extend alike to every individual of the human 
family. 

"2. As the above-mentioned rights are in their nature 
inalienable, it is not possible that one man can convert 
another into a piece of property, thus at once annihilating 
all his personal rights, without the mo.st flagrant injustice 
and usurpation. But American slavery does this, — it 
declares a slave to be a 'THING,' a 'CHATTEL,' an article 
of personal 'PROPERTY,' a piece of 'MERCHANDISE,' and 
now actually holds TWO AND a- HALF MILLIONS of our 
fellow-men in this precise condition. 

"3. Abolitionists, therefore, hold American slavery to 
be a wrong, a legalized system of inconceivable injustice, 
and a SIN. That it is a sin against God, whose preroga- 
tive as the rightful owner of all human beings is usurped, 
and against the slave himself, who is deprived of the power 
to dispose of his serxices, as conscience may dictate or his 
Maker require. And as whatever is morally wrong can 
never be politically right, and as the bible teaches, and as 
Abolitionists believe, that 'righteousness exalteth a nation, 
while sin is a reproach to any people,' they also hold that 
slaver>' is a political evil of unspeakable magnitude, and 
one which, if not removed, will speedily work the downfall 
of our free institutions, both civil and religious. 



112 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

"4. As the Bible inculcates upon man but one duty in 
respect to sin, and that is immediate repentance; Abo- 
litionists believe that all who hold slaves, or who approve 
the practice in others, should immediately cease to do so. 

"5. Lastly, Abolitionists believe that as all men are boi-Ji 
free, so all who are now held as slaves in this country were 
BORN FREE, and that they are slaves now is the sin, not of 
those who introduced the race into this country, but of 
those, and those alone, who now hold them, and have held 
them in slavery from their birth. Let it be admitted, for 
ars^ument's sake, that A or B, has justly forfeited his title 
to freedom, and that he is now the rightful slave of C, 
bought with his money, how does this give C a claim to 
the posterity of A, down to the latest generation.^ And 
does not the guilt of enslaving the successive generations 
of A's posterity belong to their respective masters, whoever 
they be.'* Nowhere are the true principles of freedom 
and personal rights better understood than at the South, 
though their practice corresponds so wretchedly with their 
theory. Abolitionists adopt, as their own, the following 
sentiments, expressed b}' Mr. Calhoun, in a speech on the 
tariff question, delivered in the Senate of the United 
States, in 1833: 'He who r^/vw the money, — zv/io digs it 
out of the earth with the sweat of his brow, has a jNst title 
to it against thp universe. No one has a right to touch it, 
without his consent, except his government, and // ouiy to 
the extent of its legitimate wants; to take more is robbery.' 
Now, this is precisely what slave-holders do, and Aboli- 
tionists do but echo back their own language when they 
pronounce it 'robbery.'" 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. II3 

EMANCIPATION — WHAT IS MEANT BY IT ? 

"Simply, that the slaves shall cease to be held as prop- 
ti'ty, and shall henceforth be held and treated as human 
beings. Simply, that we should take our feet from off 
their necks. Perhaps we can not express ourselves better 
than to quote the language of another Southerner. In 
reply to the question, what is meant by emancipation, the 
answer is: 

'I. It is to reject with indignation the wild and guilty 
phantasy, that man can hold property in man. 

'2. To pay the laborer his hire, for he is worthy of it. 

'3. No longer to deny him the right of marriage, but to 
'let every man have his own wife,' as saith the apostle. 

'4. To let parents have their own children, for they are 
the gift of the Lord to them, and no one else has any right 
to them. 

'5. No longer to withhold the advantages of education, 
and the privilege of reading the bible. 

'6. To put the slave under the protection of law, instead 
of throwing him beyond its salutary influence.' 

"Now, who is there that is opposed to slavery at all, 
and believes it to be wrong and a sin, but will agree to all 
this.? 

"HOW AND BY WHOM IS EMANCIPATION TO BE EF- 
FECTED.? 

"To this question the answer is, by the Piasters tJuin- 
selves, and by no others. No others can effect it, nor is it 
desirable that they should, even if they could. Emanci- 
pation, to be of any value to the slave, must be the free, 
voluntary act of the master, performed from a conviction 



114 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

of its propriety. This avowal may sound very strange to 
those who have been in the habit of taking the principles 
of the Abolitionists from the misrepresentations of their 
opponents. Yet this is, and always has been, the cardinal 
principle of Abolitionists. If it be asked, then, why they 
intermeddle in a matter where they can confessedly do 
nothing themselves, in achieving the desired result? their 
reply is, that this is the very reason why they do and 
ought to intermeddle. It is because they can not emanci- 
pate the slaves, that they call upon those who can to do it. 
Could they themselves do it, there would be no need of 
discussion ; instead of discussing they would act, and with 
their present views, the work would soon be accomplished. 
"Who are they that hold temperance meetings, form 
temperance societies, sustain and edit, and circulate tem- 
perance 'Intelligencers' and 'Heralds'.'' Are they the 
men who own distilleries, or who sell or drink ardent 
spirits by the wholesale or retail .-' Directly the reverse. 
They arc men who have been convinced of the evil and 
the sin of such practices, and having quit them themselves, 
are now endeavoring to persuade their neighbors to do the 
same thing. For what purpose are the very efficient 
Executive Committee of the Illinois State Temperance 
Society now publishing their Herald, and endeavoring to 
send it into every family of the State.'' Avowedly for the 
purpose of shutting up every distillery and dram-shop in 
the State. The object is a noble one, and we bid them 
God-speed; but how do they purpose to accomplish it.^ 
By doing violence, or exciting an angry community to do 
violence, to the persons or property of their fellow-citizens? 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. II5 

By no manner of means. They would not, if they could, 
shut up a single grog-shop belonging to their neighbors — 
and in this thing, all the inhabitants of the State, yea, of 
the world, are their neighbors — but they wish, and are de- 
termined, if light, and love, and argument, and fact, and 
demonstration can effect it, to persuade all to abandon a 
business so detrimental to all concerned in it, and to the 
community at large. Now, this is precisely the ground 
occupied by Abolitionists in relation to slavery. And let 
it be remembered, that the objection of interfering in the 
business of others applies with equal force to the one as to 
the other. Should the friends of temperance succeed, they 
will deprive many a man of what is now a very profitable 
business, and so will the Abolitionists. But in both cases 
the result will be achieved with the hearty and glad acqui- 
escence of those more im.mediately concerned, and a great 
common good will be effected, infinitely over-balancing the 
partial evil, if evil it may be called, to deprive a man of 
the profits arising from rum-selling or slave-trading. 

"But, in the second place, as to the particular mode of 
effecting emancipation. This, too, belongs to the master 
to decide. When we tell a distiller, or a vender of ardent 
spirits, that duty requires him to forsake his present busi- 
ness, we go no further. It belongs not to the preacher of 
temperance to dictate to them what particular use they 
shall make of those materials now so improperly em- 
ployed. He may do any thing, convert his buildings and 
appurtenances to any use, so that it be a lawful one. Yet 
advice might, perhaps, be kindly given and profitably 
listened to. We can tell the slave-holder what he may do 



Il6 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

^\ ith his slaves after emancipation, so as to do them just- 
ice, and at the same time, lose nothing himself. Employ 
them as free laborers, pay them their stipulated wages, 
and the results of the West-India emancipation have af- 
forded to us the means of assuring him that he will derive 
more clear profit from their labor as freemen than as 
slaves. Did the Abolitionists propose to remove the slave 
population from the country, the free inhabitants of the 
South might justly complain; for that would soon render 
their country a barren and uncultivated waste. But they 
aim at no such thing; nor yet would they encourage or 
allow the emancipated slaves to roam about the country 
as idle vagabonds; they would say to them, as to others, 
'They that will not work, neither shall they eat,' and let 
the regulation be enforced with all proper sanctions. 
Only when they work, let them be paid for it. 

"No charge has been more perseveringly made, or con- 
tributed more to render the cause of emancipation odious, 
than that 'its friends were also advocates of the amalgama- 
tion of the two races.' Now, in answer to this, we reply: 

"I. The charge comes with an exceedingly bad grace 
from those who are loudest in making it; since they, that 
is many of them (we speak within bounds when we say 
more than half of them), do not only advocate, but actual- 
ly practise amalgamation. The evidence of this is written 
in the bleached countenances of the slaves throughout all 
the slave-holding region. The law of slave descent is, that 
the children follow the condition of the mother; and the 
consequence is, that thousands hold as slaves their own 
sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters, and nephews 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 117 

and nieces. We know several cases of this sort. The 
Vice-President of the United States has been, if he is not 
now, the father of slaves. And thousands have voted to 
elevate him to his present condition, who would crucify an 
Abolitionist on the bare suspicion of favoring, though only 
in theory, such an amalgamation. How shall we account 
for such incbnsistenc}'.'' 

"2. But, secondly, the charge is untrue — completely, and 
absolutely, and in every sense untrue. Abolitionists do 
not advocate the doctrine of amalgamation, but the re- 
verse. And nothing can be more unjust than thus to 
charge them, without the least shadow of truth to sustain 
the charge. On the contrary, one reason why Abolitionists 
urge the abolition of slavery is, that they fully believe it 
will put a stop, in a great, and almost entire measure, to 
that wretched, and shameful, and polluted intercourse be- 
tween the whites and blacks, now so common, it may be 
said so universal, in the slave States. As to equality of 
privileges, immunities, etc., the question of emancipation 
has nothing to do with these questions at all. Abolition- 
ists are not so silly as to suppose that merely setting the 
slaves free will at once make learned, virtuous, and influen- 
tial individuals out of the degraded mass of slaves. They 
know better, though, at the same time, they believe a pro- 
cess of purification and elevation would commence, which 
would gradually be productive of the most beneficial con- 
sequences. The question of civil rights is one entirely 
distinct from that of personal rights. Let the latter be 
restored and guaranteed, and the whole object of the Abo- 
litionists, as such, is accomplished. Political rights are 



li^ THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

alienable, personal rights are not. Personal rights are often 
as secure under the government of a despot — Frederick 
the Great, of Prussia, for instance, — as they possibly can 
be any where; while at the same time the subject has no 
political rights, give him these and you allow him to pur- 
sue his own happiness in his own way, provided he seeks 
it not at the expense of others. If in this pursuit he 
becomes the most virtuous, the most learned, the most 
eloquent, the most influential man in the United States, 
we see not how it is to be helped, nor who has a right to 
obstruct his course. 

"The above exposition of anti-slavery principles has 
been made at the request of a number of our respectable 
citizens. In preparing it, we have felt deeply our re- 
sponsibility, and have trembled lest through any inad- 
vertence of language we should make ourselves liable to 
be misunderstood, and thus repel the minds of those whom 
we wish to gain. In the correctness of these principles we 
have the most unshaken confidence, and that they finally 
will be properly understood and most universally adopted 
by our countr}aTien, we have no more doubt than we have 
that Washington lived, and Warren died, to secure the 
blessings of civil and religious liberty. That they have 
met with such determined opposition, and brought upon 
their prominent supporters such extreme manifestations of 
popular hatred, is partly, and chiefly, owing to the fact 
that they have been strangely misapprehended, and partly 
that, in their practical application in this country, they 
strike, or are supposed to strike, at self-interests of great 
magnitude. 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. II9 

"Until the sentiments and principles set forth above 
shall prevail over the earth, the world can never be deliv- 
ered from the bondage under which it has so long groaned. 
They are the sentiments which, though oftentimes dimly 
and feebly apprehended, have actuated the minds of the 
great and good of every age, who have mourned over the 
degredation of human nature, and have sought to elevate 
it, by ascertaining and securing those rights of man with 
Avhich his Maker has endowed him. They are the princi- 
ples which actuated a Thrasj'bulus, an Epaminondas, a 
Spartacus, and a Brutus, of antiquity; a Doria, a Tell, a 
Hampden, a Sidney, a Russell, a Hancock, an Adams, a 
Washington, of later days. They brought our pilgrim 
fathers from the homes and firesides of old England to 
this country, then an unknown land, and a waste, howling 
-wilderness. They sustained them to endure toils, and 
hardships, and privations, until they made the 'wilderness 
to Fejoice and blossom as the rose.' And now shall their 
children forsake these principles, and attempt to roll back 
the wheels of that reformation on whose banner is in- 
scribed the LIBERTY AND EQUALITY OF THE HUMAN 
RACE, and which dispenses in its train, alike to all, the 
blessings of peace, of harmony, and the unmolested rights 
of conscience.^ No, they will not, they dare not. 

"We do not mean to be understood than in the cases 
referred to above, the manifestations of these principles 
were always proper. Enough, however, appeared to show 
that the minds of these patriots and sages were commun- 
ing with their Maker, and were receiving from Him, — 
though owing to the darkness of their minds, imperfectly 



I20 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 

understood and often misapprehended, — revelations of the 

rights, duties, and privileges which He designed for the 

race. 

"Did the forms 

Of servile custom cramp their gen'rous powers? 

Would sordid policies, the barb'rous growth 

Of ignorance and rapine, bow them down 

To tame pursuits, to indolence and fear? 

Lo! they appeal to nature, to the winds 

And rolling waves, the sun's unwearied course, 

The elements and seasons; all declare 

For what the eternal Maker has ordain'd 

The powers of man; they felt within themselves 

His energy divine. 

"These principles, then, are eternal and immutable, for 
they are established by God himself, and whoever would 
destroy them, must first reach up to heaven and dethrone 
the Almighty. Sin had wellnigh banished them from the 
earth, when the Son of God came down to reassert them, 
and died to sanction them. They are summed up, per- 
fectly, in the language by which the angels announced the 
object of the Redeemer's mission : 'Glory TO GOD IN 
THE Highest. On Earth Peace, Good Will Toward 
Men.'" 

comments of the ST. LOUIS PRESS. 
The Missouri Republican, of St. Louis, was very gen- 
erally taken and read at Alton, at that time. The pro- 
ceedings of the market-house meeting were published in 
that paper, and commented on in a way to encourage a 
spirit of lawlessness and outrage, as follows: 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 121 

"THE ALTON MEETING. 

"We give to-day all of the proceedings of the meeting 
licld in Alton, on Thursday last, that our space will per- 
mit. We rejoice to see our neighbors taking this subject 
into hand. The proceedings of the meeting speak for 
themselves. They are not the intemperate ebullitions of 
excitement, or the temporary expression of a high-wrought 
feeling; on the contrary, the proceedings throughout, mani- 
fest, to us, the deep and settled purpose of men whose 
hospitalities hav^e been slighted, and whose friendships 
have been abused by one who was bound by every moral 
and political obligation to have acted otherwise. The edi- 
tor of the Observer has merited the full measure of the 
community's indignation; and if he will not learn from 
experience, they are very likely to teach him by practice, 
something of the light in which the honorable and respect- 
able portion of the community view his conduct. He has 
by his adhesion to the odious doctrines of Abolitionism, of 
which faction he now avows himself a member, and by his 
continued efforts to disseminate these odious doctrines, 
forfeited all claims to the protection of that or any other 
community." 

THE ST. LOUIS REPUBLICAN'S SECOND ARTICLE IN FAVOR 
OF "DOING SOMETHING." 

The Rcpublicaiis hints had not led to the ejection of 
Lovejoy from Alton, and on August 17, 1837, — ^o'-ii' days 
before the destruction of his second press, — they published 
plainer directions, declaring that "something must be 
done," and that speedily, as follows: 



122 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 

"ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES IN ILLINOIS. 

"We perceive that an Anti-Slavery Society has been 
formed at Upper- Alton, and many others, doubtless, will 
shortly spring up in different parts of the State. We had 
hoped that our neighbors would have ejected from amongst 
them that minister of mischief, the Observer, or at least cor- 
rected its course. 

"Something must be done in this matter, and that 
speedily! The good people of Illinois must either put a 
stop to the efforts of these fanatics, or expel them from 
their community. If this is not done, the travel of emi- 
grants through their State, and the trade of the slave- 
holding States, and particularly Missouri, must stop. 
Every one who desires the harmony of the country, and 
the peace and prosperity of all, should unite to put them 
down. They can do no positive good, and may do much 
irreparable harm. We would not desire to sec this done 
at the expense of public order or legal restraint; but there 
is a moral indignation which the virtuous portion of a 
community may exert, which is sufficient to crush this 
faction and fore\er disgrace its fanatic instigators. It is 
to this we appeal, and hope that the appeal will not be 
unhedeed." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Lovejoy mobbed — Destruction of the second press — Lovejoy of- 
fers to resign as editor — His offer not accepted — A third 
press ordered — Its destruction — Lovejoy again mobbed — A 
thriUing narrative — A fourth press ordered. 

The spirit of insubordination was, at this time, increas- 
ing throughout the land, as the result of a general conflict 
of opinion on the subject of slavery. 

The market-house meeting at Alton, and the persist- 
ency with which St. Louis newspapers declared that "some- 
thing must be done," naturally led to a mob at Alton, on 
August 21, 1837. The rabble first attempted to assault 
Mr. Lovejoy at nine o'clock in the evening, as he was re- 
turning from the apothecary's with some medicine for his 
sick wife. His account of the attempt reads as follows: 
"We reside more than half a mile from town. And just 
as I was leaving the principal street I met the mob. They 
did not at first recognize me, and I parted their columns 
for some distance, and had just reached the rear, when 
some of them began to suspect who it was. They im- 
mediately wheeled their column and came after me; I did 
not hurry at all, believing it was not for such a man as I 
am to flee. They seemed a little loath to come on me, 
and I could hear their leaders swearing at them, and tell- 
ing them to 'push on,' etc. By this time, they began to 
throw clods of dirt at me, and several hit, without hurting 
me. And now a fellow pushed up to my side, armed with 

12^ 



124 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 



1 



a club, to ascertain certainly who it was. He then yelled 
out, 'It's the d — d AboHtionist, give him hell;' whereat 
there was another rush upon mc. But when they got close 
up, they seemed again to fall back. At length, a number 
of them, linked arm in arm, pushed by me and wheeled in 
the road before me, thus stopping me completely. I then 
spoke to them, asking them why they stopped me. By 
this time the cry was all around me, 'd — n him,' 'rail him,' 
'rail him,' 'tar and feather him,' 'tar and feather him.' I 
had no doubt that such was to be my fate. I then said to 
them, I have one request to make of you, and then you 
may do with me what you please. I then asked them to 
send one of their number to take the medicine to my wife, 
which I begged they would do without alarming her. 
This they promised, and sent one of their number to do 
it, who did it according to the promise. I then said to 
them, 'you had better let me go; you have no right to de- 
tain me; I have never injured you.' They began to curse 
and to swear, when I added, 'I am in your hands, and you 
must do -with me whatever God permits you to do.' " 

The sublime calmness of the man whose soul is stayed 
on God proved in this case — as it frequently has before — 
the prelude to deliverance. God disappointed the "de- 
vices of the crafty, so that their hands could not perform 
their enterprise." They consulted a few moments, and 
then bade Lovejo}^ go home. 

During the same night, at a little later hour, a mob en- 
tered the Observer office, destroyed the press, type, and 
material, and wounded one of the men, by casting a stone 
through the window. Immediately after this, assurances 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 1 2$ 

of aid — not a few from distant States — came freely to Mr. 
Lovejoy. His ministerial brethren expressed the earnest 
wish, and confident expectation, that his paper should go 
on, and the friends of free-speech at once held a meeting 
for that object at Alton. 

Money was offered for another press, and so quickly was 
the order executed, that the new material arrived at Alton 
on September 21, 1837, at a time when Mr. Lovejoy was 
absent at Presbytery. This was the third press, and some 
of the friends in Alton began to doubt the wisdom ot 
Lovejoy's continuance in the position of editor. The 
abatement of zeal and partial desertion among his friends 
were largely caused by the circulation of a pamphlet by 
the Rev. Mr. Smylie,"^ which was said to be " full of gross 
perversions, yet gilded over with a smirking cant of sin- 
cerity." This tract, with a specious sophistry well calcu- 
lated to deceive, endeavored to prove that the bible sanc- 
tions the system of American slavery. Shakespeare evi- 
dently had such reverend seniors in mind when he made 

Bassanio say: 

"In religion, 

What damned error, but some sober brow, 
Will bless it and approve it with a text." 
Rev. Joel Parker, of New Orleans, was at Alton about 
this time, and he also exerted an influence which was ad- 
verse to Mr. Lovejoy. 

The question, however, was not one of abolition doctrine, 
but whether the free use of the press — whether civil liberty, 
for which so much blood had been shed, and so many pri- 
* Of Mississippi. 



126 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 

vations had been encountered in the United States, was to 
be surrendered at the dictation of slave-holders. That was 
the question, and it is a fact that many of those — myself 
included — who took the most active part in sustaining Mr. 
Lovejoy were not then Abolitionists. 

As soon as Lovejoy ascertained that there was a differ- 
ence of sentiment among his friends, he decided to make 
an unconditional surrender of the editorship; but, finally, 
on the judicious advice of one in particular, he concluded to 
leave the question to be decided by all of his friends, and to 
cheerfully yield his post to a successor, if that was desired. 
This decision was communicated in the following letter: 
OFFER TO RESIGN THE EDITORIAL CHAIR. 
"TO THE FRIENDS OF THE REDEEMER IN ALTON. 

"Alton, September nth, 1837. 
"Dear Brethren: 

"It is at all times important that the friends of truth should 
be united. It is especially so, at the present time, when 
iniquity is coming in like a flood. I should be false to my 
covenant vows, and false to every feeling of my heart, were 
I to refuse making any personal sacrifice to effect so desir- 
able an object. Having learned that there is a division of 
sentiments among the brethren, as it regards the propriety 
of my continuing longer to fill the office of editor of the 
Alton Observer, I do not hesitate a moment to submit 
the question to your decision. Most cheerfully will I re- 
sign my post if, in your collective wisdom, you think the 
cause we all profess to love will thereby be promoted. And 
in coming to a decision on this question, I beseech you as 
a favor — may I not enjoin it as a duty.'' — that you act with- 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 12/ 

out any regard to my personal feelings. I should be false 
to the Master I serve, and of whose gospel I am a minister, 
should I allow my own interests (real or supposed) to be 
placed in competition with His. Indeed, I have no inter- 
est, no wish, at least, I think I have none; I know I ought 
to have none other than such as are subordinate to his will. 
Be it yours, brethren, to decide what is best for the cause 
of truth, most for the glory of God and the salvation of 
souls, and rest assured — whatever my own private judg- 
ment may be — of my cordial acquiescence in your decision. 

"I had, at first, intended to make an iincondiiional sur- 
render of the editorship into your hands. But as such a 
course might be liable to misconstructions, I have, by the 
advice of a beloved brother, determined to leave the whole 
m.atter with you. I am ready to go forward if you say so, 
and equally ready to yield to a successor, if such be your 
opinion, Yet let me say, promptly, that in looking back 
over my past labors as editor of the Observer, while I see 
many imperfections and many errors and mistakes, I have, 
nevertheless, done the best I could. This I say in the fear 
of God; so that if I am to continue the editor, you must 
not, on the whole, expect a much better paper than you 
have had. 

"Should you decide that I ought to give place to a suc- 
cessor, I shall expect the two following conditions to be 
fulfilled : 

"I. That you will assume in its behalf all my obligations 
contracted in consequence of my connection with the Ob- 
server. Some of them were contracted immediately on 
behalf of the Observer, and some in supporting my family 
while its editor. 



128 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

"2. As I have now spent four, among the best years of 
my Hfe, in struggling to establish the Observer, and place 
it on its present footing, I shall expect you will furnish me 
with a sum sufficient to enable me to remove myself and 
family to another field of labor. More I do not ask, and 
I trust this will not be thought unreasonable. I would not 
ask even this had I the means myself, but I have not. 

"3. On these conditions I surrender into your hands the 
Observer s subscription list, now amounting to more than 
two thousand one hundred names, and constantly increas- 
ing, together with all the dues coming to the establishment. 
A list both of the debts and credits accompanies this com- 
munication. May the spirit of wisdom, dear brethren, guide 
you to a wise and unaniinous decision — to a decision which 
God will approve and ratify, and which shall redound to 
the glory of His name. 

"Yours affectionately, 

"Elijah P. Lovejoy." 

A meeting of the friends was accordingly held which, 
after adjournment and long consideration of the subject, 
gave it as their opinion that the Observer should be re- 
established, and Elijah P. Lovejoy ought to continue its 
editor. 

The third press, as I have stated, arrived at Alton about 
sunset on September 21st, 1837, during the absence of 
Mr. Lovejoy. Many of his friends gathered around it as it 
was conveyed to the warehouse of Gerry & Weller. No 
violence was offered, but cries of "There goes the Abolition 
press, stop it," were heard. The mayor, John M. Krum, 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 1 29 

seemed desirous of protecting it, and asked that it be left 
in his hands. The provision he made, however, was entire- 
ly inadequate. He had a constable posted at the door ot 
Gerry's warehouse, until a certain hour in the night. As 
soon as this official left, ten or twelve "respectable" ruffians, 
disguised with handkerchiefs over their faces, broke into 
the store, rolled out the press to the river-bank, broke all 
up and cast it into the Mississippi. The mayor, however, 
arrived before all was destroyed, and told them to disperse. 
They replied to the effect that they were bitsy, and as soon 
as through with their little job the}' would go home, and 
they recommended him to do the same without delay. This 
he did, remarking, it is said, that he never had witnessed a 
more quiet and gentlemanly mob. There were a few gen- 
tlemen from the South, at that time, living in Alton, who 
gloried in Southern institutions and Southern domination, 
and it was not difficult for such men to find followers at the 
saloons in the City, or to procure aid from the neighboring 
City of St. Louis. It was said, that in the month of August 
preceding, a party of armed men had come from St. Louis 
and stationed themselves behind a wall for the purpose ot 
firing on any one who should dare to defend Lovejoy's 
-office. 
LOVEJOY AGAIN :^IOBBED. — A FOURTH PRES.S ORDERED. 
Whilst Lovejoy was sufficiently resolute to go to the 
stake with calmness and in peace of mind, because his con- 
science was at peace Avith God, he was still exceedingly 
sensitive as to the opinions of friends. As it was with 
Luther, "Thoughts many and deep, words few," so was it 
with him. The poem "Athanasius Contra Mundum" pre- 
sents a true picture of Lovejo}' : q 



1 30 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

"They call me haughty, of opinion proud, 

Untaught to bend a stubborn will; 
Ah! little dreams the shallow-hearted crowd 

What thoughts this bosom fill, 
What loneliness this outer strength doth hide^ 

What longing lies beneath this calm, 
For human sympathy so long untried. 

Our Earth's divinest balm. 

But more than sympathy the truth I prize; 

Above my friendships hold I God, 
And stricken be these feet ere they despise 

The path their Maker trod. 
So let my banner be again unfurled. 

Again its cheerless motto seen, 
* The zvorld against me, I against the world:'' 

Judge Thou, dear Christ, between." 
[Translated by the Rev. W. R. Huntington.] 

We have reason to believe that at times, like Job, he 
prayed for death, yet in perfect submission to the divine 
will. 

It is by no means pleasant for me to record particulars 
of riots and persecutions, and therefore I shall give but a 
very brief account of the mob \\'hich occurred at St. Charles, 
Missouri, about ten days after the destruction of his third 
press, by which Mr. Lovejoy nearly lost his life. 

His mother-in-law lived in that city, and he and his sick 
wife, with their infant, were staying with her. Mr. Love- 
joy had preached twice on that quiet Sabbath, and about 
nine at night, when he and his friend. Rev. Mr. Campbell, 
were conversing, they heard an ominous knock at the door 
and a call for Mr. I.ovejoy. He answered 'T am here." 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 131 

They immediately rushed up the portico, and two of them, 
coming into the room (wrote Mr. Lov^ejoy), "laid hold of 
me. These two individuals, the name of one was Littler, 
formerly from Virginia, the other called himself a Missis- 
sippian, but his name I have not learned, though it is 
known in St. Charles. I asked them what they wanted of 

me. 'We want you down stairs, d n you,' was the reply. 

They accordingly commenced attempting to pull me out 
of the house. And not succeeding immediately, one of 
them, Littler, began to beat me with his fists. By this 
time, Mrs, Lovejoy had come into the room. In doing so, 
she had to make her way through the mob on the portico, 
who attempted to hinder her from coming by rudely push- 
ing her back, and one 'chivalrous' Southerner actually drew 
his dirk upon her. Her only reply was to strike him in the 
face with her hand, and then, rushing past him, she flew to 
where I was, and, throwing her arms around me, boldly 
faced the mobites, with a fortitude and self-devotion which 
none but a woman and a wife ever displayed. While they 
were attempting with oaths and curses to drag me from the 
room, she was smiting them in the face with her hands, or 
clinging to me to aid in resisting their efforts, and telling 
them that they must first take her before they should have 
her husband. Her energetic measures, seconded by those 
of her mother and sister, induced the assailants to let me 
go and leave the room. 

As soon as they were gone, Mrs. Lovejoy's powers of 
endurance failed her, and she fainted. I carried her into 
another room and laid her on the bed. So soon as she re- 
covered from her fainting she relapsed into hysterical fits, 



132 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

moaning and shrieking and calling upon my name alter- 
nately. Her situation at this time was truly alarming and 
distressing. To add to the perplexities of the moment, I 
had our sick child in my arms, taken up from the floor, 
where it had been left by its grandmother, in the hurry and 
alarm of the first onset of the mob. The poor little suf- 
ferer, as if conscious of danger from the cries of its mother, 
clung to me in silence. In this condition, and while I was 
endeavoring to calm Mrs. Lovejoy's dreadfully excited 
mind, the mob returned to the charge, breaking into the 
room, and, rushing up to the bedside, again attempting to 
force me from the house. The brutal wretches were total- 
ly indifferent to her heart-rending cries and shrieks — she 
was too far exhausted to move; and I suppose they would 
have succeeded in forcing me out, had not my friend, 
William M. Campbell, at this juncture come in, and with 
undaunted boldness, assisted me in freeing myself from 
their clutches. Mr. Campbell is a Southerner and a slave- 
holder; but he is a man, and he will please accept my grate- 
ful thanks for his aid so promptly and so opportunely ren- 
dered; others aided in forcing the mob from the room, so 
that the house was now clear a second time. 

They did not, however, leave the yard of the house, 
which was full of drunken wretches, uttering the most aw- 
ful and soul-chilling oaths and imprecations, and swearing 
they would have me at all hazards. I could hear the epi- 
thets, 'The infernal scoundrel, the d d amalgamating 

Abolitionist, we'll have his heart out yet,' etc., etc. They 
were armed with pistols and dirks, and one pistol was dis- 
charged, whether at any person or not, I did not know. 
The fellow from Mississippi seemed the most bent on my 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 133 

destruction. He did not appear at all drunken, but both 
in words and actions manifested the most fiendish malig- 
nity of feeling and purpose." 

The drunken rabble filled the door-yard; three times 
they returned to the attack, after which Lovejoy's friends 
insisted on his leaving the place that night. It was very 
dark, but he groped his way to the house of Major Sibley, 
his friend, a mile distant, where he was furnished with a 
horse, and by daylight he reached the dwelling of the ex- 
cellent Elder Watson, and from thence proceeded to Alton, 
commending his wife and child to the tender mercy of his 
God. Thus it will be seen that with the principles which 
he felt it his duty to avow he was not safe anywhere. He 
stood as the bold representative of civil and religious 
liberty and learned "by the things which he suffered" that 
they who will "live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer per- 
secution." 

From this time to his martyrdom was but little more 
than a month. In that space of time, Lovejoy resigned 
himself to the advice of friends. He neither sought nor 
shunned position. Another press, the fourth and last, 
had been ordered, through the aid of the defenders of free- 
speech in Ohio, as was believed. 

Where the press was to be used was not decided. The 
friends of the Anti-Slavery cause were to meet at Upper- 
Alton, in convention, on Oct. 26th, 1837, to form a State 
Anti-Slavery Society. To God, and to his ministerial 
brethren who were to attend that gathering, he committed 
his way, ready to give place to another, to remove to Ouin- 
cy, III., to which place he had been invited,— or to pursue 
any other course that Providence might indicate. 



CHAPTER XV. 

An anti-slavery convention called — Proceedings of the Conven- 
tion — Colonization meetings — President Edward Beecher, 
of Illinois College, defends Mr. Lovejoy — His address in- 
terrupted — A mob prevented by armed citizens. 

On the third week of October, 1837, Mr. Lovejoy at- 
tended the annual meeting of synod, at Springfield, Illinois, 
where he had an opportunity to counsel with his brethren 
regarding his future course. 

He returned to Alton greatly refreshed by their en- 
couragement and approbation. About two hundred and 
fifty persons, some of them aged clergymen, whose views 
he respected, had signed the call for the Anti-Slavery 
Convention, and as his fourth press would not arrive until 
after the time of that meeting, he looked to his friends to 
decide from what point in the State the future numbers of 
the Alton Observer should issue. The convention which 
had been called to establish a State Anti-Slavery Society, 
met on October 26, 1837, in the Presbyterian Church, in 
Upper-Alton. 

The call for members was unfortunately so wide, that 
the instigators and abettors of the mobs, and even the act- 
ors in them, found no difficulty in gaining entrance. They 
had formed the cunning device of presenting themselves 
in such force as to rule the assembly. The Rev. Gideon 
Blackburn, then very old, but an excellent man, was called 
by general consent to the chair. There was a majority of 

134 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. • 1 35 

the friends of the call then in the house, but much delay 
was occasioned, and an entire afternoon was spent in heated 
discussion. 

The next morning, the chairman decided that the previ- 
ous day's meeting had been disorderly, and that the test of 
membership must be signature to the call. Many signed 
who desired to break up the convention, and the Attorney- 
General, U. F. Linder, succeeded in having himself put on 
the business committee, with two good men as associates, — 
Rev. Edward Beecher and Rev. Mr. Turner. This, of 
■course, led to two reports, and the minority report was 
•carried by Linder's and Rev. John Hogan's followers, who 
then adjourned the convention sine die. 

But this farce could not succeed with such earnest men. 
The real friends of the convention met at the house of 
Rev. T. B. Hurlburt, formed a State Society, appointing E. 
P. Lovejoy corresponding secretary, and after a full dis- 
cussion of the subject, decided to recommend Mr. Lovejoy 
to continue the publication of his paper at Alton. Many, 
howev^er, were opposed to settling the question in this 
manner, unless the civil authorities and people of Alton 
would awaken to the importance of sustaining law against 
mob-rule. It was thought prudent that whenever the press 
arrived it should be stored in the warehouse of Godfrey 
•& Gilman, though nothing had been said to them on the 
subject. There, it was believed, it would be safe from the 
vengeance of mobs, because of the high standing of the 
firm, and because it was not decided yet whether Mr. 
Lovejoy might not take it to Quincy, 111. 

Just before, and immediately after the date of the con- 



136 THE MARTYRDOM UF LOVEJOV. 

vention, some good men who called themselves coloniza- 
tionists, and a number of others whose motives were ques- 
tioned, became possessed with a sudden glow in favor 
of colonization. Two meetings were held about this time 
in Upper and in Lower-Alton, the object of which seemed 
to be to forestall the Abolitionists. 

They were addressed by Hon. Cyrus Edwards, Rev. J. 
M. Peck, and Rev. Joel Parker, the latter of New Orleans. 
It was reported that Dr. Parker even went so far as to say 
that it is "an un-Christian thing to speak on any subject 
calculated greatly to disturb and agitate a people," thus 
making in effect the same objection to Lovejoy that the 
Thessalonians made to Paul, when they called out, "these 
that have turned the world upside down, have come hither 
also." 

On the 30th of October, a day or two after the coloniza- 
tion meeting, the friends of free-speech were addressed by 
Rev. Edward Beecher, then President of Illinois Colleg-e., 
at the Presbyterian church, in Lower-Alton. He ex- 
pressed himself strongly in favor of defending Mr. Love- 
joy to the last, and his views exerted a powerful influence 
upon his hearers. Mr. Beecher's discourse was interrupted 
for a short time in consequence of a stone being cast 
through one of the church windows, and he probably 
would have been mobbed then, but for the fact that the 
mayor was in the meeting, and we had made provision ta 
repel any attack. The moment the stone was thrown my 
brother, who was in the gallery, called our company "To 
arms!" and in a few moments the church door was flanked 
on either side by a row of armed men, whom it was not 



THE iMARTVRDOM OF LOVEJOY. I3;> 

safe for a mob to attack. Enoch Long and A. W. Corey 
were among the citizens in hne. Mr. Beecher went on 
with his discourse to the close, and as the people retired, 
the mayor called on outsiders to disperse. The prompt- 
ness of this defence was due to the fact that after repeated 
consultations between the mayor, Mr. Lovejoy, Mr. Gil- 
man, myself and others, we had organized a company of 
about fifty men, a part of whom were afterwards in service 
in Godfrey & Gilman's warehouse on the night of the 
mob. We certainly supposed ourselves acting under civil 
authority, because the mayor was not only cognizant of all 
our doings, but had stated to us that we had a right to 
defend the press, and if it was attacked he would order us 
to fire on our assailants. 

Subsequently, at the trial of the defenders of the press, 
Mayor Krum stated that in those interviews we must have 
misunderstood him. He said that his advice to us was 
that of a citizen and a friend, but he did not consider he 
was then advising us officially, as mayor. This finely- 
drawn distinction, made subsequently to the events, pre- 
sented an unforeseen view of our responsibility — albeit, had 
we known this kindly, unofficial advice at the time it was 
given, I believe it would have made no difference in the 
determination to defend our "castle." 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The last public meeting — The proceedings and the results — 
Comments in The N'ciu York Atnerican. 

I have now brought the reader to the 2d November, 
1837, when a meeting was held in Alton, which was, evi- 
dently, as closely connected with the riot of November 7th< 
as cause is with effect. The reader has seen that a mob 
Avas prevented at the Presbyterian Church by means of a 
bold defence: it is my deliberate conviction that had the 
leading citizens of Alton united with us at this meeting, to 
sustain the civil rights of Lovejoy, any mob that could have 
been raised might have been overcome. 

A full report of meeting — so important in its results — 
will be found in appendix, page 18 , and I insert here an 
exceedingly clear resume and criticism of it, which appeared 
in the Ncn.'- York American, November 29th, 1837. 
THE ALTON MURDER — ITS CAUSE. 

"Mr. Editor: — The principal circumstances attendant 
on the Alton murder are now before the public, but there 
are certain other events which transpired in that place pre- 
vious to the murder, which, though published in the news- 
papers of the place, are not so generally known as they 
should be. 

"To these circumstances I wish to direct the attention 
of your readers, and I do not anticipate any difficulty in 
establishing between them and the murder the relation of 
cause and effect. On Thursday, Nov. 2, a public meeting 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 1 39 

of the citizens of Alton was held, 'to take into considera- 
tion the present excited state of public feeling in the Cit}', 
growing out of the discussion of the Abolition question.' 
To this meeting, Mr. W. S. Oilman presented certain reso- 
lutions, declaring in substance the right of every citizen to 
speak, write, or print his opinions on any subject, being re- 
sponsible for the abuse of that right to the law administered 
by its regular tribunals. That the maintenance of these 
principles should be independent of all regard to persons or 
sentiments. That we are more especially called on to 
maintain them in cases of unpopular persons or senti- 
ments, as in any such cases only can effort be required. 

"That for these reasons alo7ic, and irrespective of all moral, 
political, or religious sentiments, protection was due to the 
person and property of Mr. Lovejoy, the editor of the Alton 
Observer; that this protection should be afforded on the 
ground of principle solely, and altogether diseonjieeted froj]i 
approbation of his sentiments, his personal character, and 
his course as editor of the Alton Observer. The adoption 
of these resolutions was opposed by U. F. Linder and 
others, and they were finally referred to a committee. To 
give time for this committee to report, the meeting ad- 
journed till next day, having first passed a resolution that 
if any violence was attempted they would do all in their 
power to maintain the law. 

"The committee, which was composed of the Attorney- 
General of the State, Mr. Edwards, member of the legisla- 
ture, and several persons of respectable standing, reported 
next day that it was inexpedient to pass the resolutions, 
that they 'demanded too much and conceded too little,' 



I40' THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV.. 

that 'there must be a mutual sacrifice of prejudices,' etc. 

"Instead of the resolutions of Mr. Oilman, the committee 
offered six of their own, declaring: 

"i. That it was expedient to abstain from a discussion 
of principles, in themselves deemed right and of the high- 
est importance. 

"2. That the establishment of a properly conducted re- 
ligious paper would be desirable and approved by the 
people of Alton. 

"3. That without desiring to restrain the liberty of the 
press in general, it was indispensable that Mr. Lovejoy 
sJioiild not be allozved to conduct a paper, and that he ought 
to retire from the charge of the Alton Observer. 

"The 6th resolution declared that they would not be 
understood to reflect on the personal character or motives 
of Mr. Lovejoy. 

"Against these views, Mr. W. S. Oilman, one of the com- 
mittee, presented a protest. He was alone. The resolu- 
tions were then put to the meeting, and t/iat recommending 
the establishment of a properly-eondncted religious newspaper 
stricken ont, as was the one repudiating all reflections on 
the personal character of Mr. Lovejoy. 

"Thus amended, they passed. Then followed the usual 
cold disapproval of all violence. The meeting was about 
to adjourn, when the mayor of the city offered a resolution 
expressive of the regret felt by the citizens of Alton, 'that 
persons and editors abroad should interest themselves in 
discussion of matters of which that City was made the 
theatre.' Then the meeting adjourned. 

"I think, Mr. Editor, that this plain detail, coming ex- 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. I4I 

clusively from the "Official Report of the Meeting" (for I 
have no other means of obtaining information), established 
beyond the possibiUty of cavil the relation of cause and 
effect, between this public meeting of the citizens of Alton 
and the murder, which, but four short days afterward, oc- 
curred. What but murder, what but violence could result 
from such proceedings? What could an ignorant and in- 
furiated mob do when thus encouraged by those to whom 
they had been accustomed to look up for opinions? The 
mayor, the attorney-general, and the merchants of Alton, 
ivitli one proud exception, declared that Mr. Lovejoy ought 
not, and must not, be allowed to establish a press — 'it is 
essential that he should be prevented from doing so' — this 
decision goes forth to the mob, but they ask, 'how can he 
be prev'ented?' Mr. Mayor and his friends reply, for they 
can make no other, ' \Vc can not Jiindcr Jiini! To this, what 
will be the certain answer of an excited mob? 'We can — 
^ve will' Was not this the natural, the necessary, the inevi- 
table consequence? But the resolutions of these Altonians 
deserve a moment's consideration. Certain resolutions had 
been laid before the meeting declaring the inalienable right 
of every citizen to freedom of speech and freedom of the 
press. That to print and publish his free thoughts was the 
birth-right of every American, and that every man should 
be protected in this right. And how does Mr. Legislator 
Edwards and Mr. Attorney-General, of the State of Illi- 
nois, dispose of these declarations — 'they demand too much 
and concede too little' — say they. Demand too much? 
They demand freedom — freedom of thought — of speech — 
of the press. Concede too little? They concede nothing, 



142 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

and God forbid that, when freedom of speech and the 
hberty of the press is in question, anything should be con- 
ceded. 

"But Mr. Edwards says, 'we should mutually sacrifice 
our prejudices.' And has it indeed come to this.? Is it in 
our land that the freedom of the press is called z. prejudice? 
Shame on the word — and double shame on the American 
tongue that could thus apply it. 

"Perhaps you will think, Mr. Editor, that I dwell too 
long upon these proceedings, and attach too much import- 
ance to them. Sir, I wish to hold these proceedings— 
these resolutions and expressions of opinion — and the riot 
and murder, which have been their natural result— up as a 
warning to the American people. 

"Did my power bear any proportion to my zeal, these 
promptings to murder, coming from persons holding respec- 
table stations in society, should be held up to the detesta- 
tion of every American, worthy of the name, and the reso- 
lutions in which Americans have dared to stigmatize the 
freedom of the press and of opinion as 'a prejudice^ to the 
scorn and contempt of every friend of civil liberty through- 
out the world! One word to Mayor Kriim and his resolu- 
tion. The people of Alton, it seems, do not desire that 
their doings should 'be canvassed by editors and persons 
at a distance.' 

"This is prudent. I wonder not that they should be un- 
willing to have their conduct commented on by any press 
out of the reach of their mob violence. 

"But the desire is vain. Their acts will be canvassed 
and condemned far and near, throughout the length and 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 143 

breadth of this free land. The murderer of Mr. Lovejoy 
will, to all appearance, go unpunished. His murderers arc 
in the majority. 

"Mr. Mayor Krum, in his account, Avhich might almost 
be called apology for the murder, does not hint at the idea 
of punishing the murderers. But do the people of Alton 
imagine that, by proclaiming immunity to violence and 
murder within the limits of their City, they can make mur- 
der less detestable, or prevent 'editors and persons at a 
distance' from denouncing the murderers and all who, be- 
fore or after, aid or abet in murder.' No, sir! They will 
be commented on, again and again, till Alton and her 
pusillanimous magistracy, her murderers, and those who 
prompt to murder, and allow murder to go unpunished, 
shall attain an infamous notoriety throughout our country. 

"Caraga." 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Mr. Lovejoy's defence, delivered at the above-mentioned meet- 
ing — His calmness — Announcement of his determination to 
remain in Alton. 

The courageous speech made by Mr. Lovejoy, at the 
meeting described in the previous chapter, is so noble in 
its fearlessness, and giv^es one so just an idea of the man's 
heroism, that I insert it here. His patient bearing at this 
trying moment is not unaptly described in the language of 
Shakspeare, concerning Richard II.: 

"No man cried, God save him; 
No joyful tongue gave him his welcome home; 
But dust was thrown upon his sacred head; 
Which with such gentle sorrow he shook off, — 
His face still combating with tears and smiles, 
The badges of his grief and patience,- — 
That had not God, for some strong purpose, steel'd 
The hearts of men, they must perforce have melted, 
And barbarism itself have pitied him." 

A writer who was present, observed : " His viauncr, — 
but I cannot attempt to describe it. He was calm and 
serious, but firm and decided. Not an epithet or unkind 
allusion escaped his lips, notwithstanding he knew he was 
in the midst of those who were seeking his blood, and 
notwithstanding he was well aware of the influence that 
that meeting, if it should not take the right turn, would 

144 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. I45 

have in infuriating the mob to do their work. He and his 
friends had prayed earnestly that God would ov^errule the 
deliberations of that meeting for good. He had been all 
day communing with God. His countenance, the subdued 
tones of his voice, and whole appearance indicated a mind 
in a peculiarly heavenly frame, and ready to acquiesce in 
the will of God, whatever that might be. I confess to you, 
sir, that I regarded him at the time, in view of all the cir- 
cumstances, as presenting a spectacle of moral sublimity, 
such as I had never before witnessed, and such as the world 
seldom affords. It reminded me of Paul before Festus, 
and of Luther at the diet of Worms." 

He spoke as follows: 
"Mr. Chairman: — 

"It is not true, as has been charged upon me, that I 
hold in contempt the feelings and sentiments of this com- 
munity, in reference to the question which is now agitating 
it. I respect and appreciate the feelings and opinions of 
m}' fellow-citizens, and it is one of the most painful and 
unpleasant duties of my life, that I am called upon to act 
in opposition to them. If you suppose, sir, that I have 
published sentiments contrary to those generally held in 
this community, because I delighted in differing from 
them, or in occasioning a disturbance, you have entirely 
misapprehended me. But, sir, while I value the good 
opinion of my fellow-citizens, as highly as any one, I may 
be permitted to say, that I am governed by higher con- 
siderations than either the favor or the fear of man. I am 
impelled to the course I have taken, because I fear God. 
As I shall answer it to my God in the great day, I dare 
10 



146 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

not abandon my sentiments, or cease in all proper ways ta 
propagate them. 

"I, Mr. Chairman, have not desired, or asked any com- 
promise. I have asked for nothing but to be protected in 
my rights as a citizen — rights which God has given me, 
and which are guaranteed to me by the constitution of my 
country. Have I, sir, been guilty of any infraction of the 
laws.-* Whose good name have I injured.'' When, and 
where, have I published any thing injurious to the reputa- 
tion of Alton .-^ 

"Have I not, on the other hand, labored, in common 
with the rest of my fellow-citizens, to promote the reputa- 
, tion and interests of this City.^ What, sir, I ask, has been 
my offence.'' Put your finger upon it — define it — and I 
stand ready to answer for it. If I have committed any 
crime, you can easily convict me You have public senti- 
ment in your favor. You have (your) juries, and you have 
your attorney (looking at the attorney-general), and I have 
no doubt you can convict me. But if I have been guilty of 
no violation of law, why am I hunted up and down con- 
tinually like a partridge upon the mountains.^ Why am I 
threatened with the tar-baircl? W'hy am I waylaid every 
day, and from night to night, and my life in jeopardy every 
hour .-• 

"You have, sir, made up, as the lawyers say, a false 
issue; there are not two parties between whom there can 
be a compromise. I plant myself, sir, down on my unques- 
tionable rights, and the question to be decided is, whether 
I shall be protected in the exercise and enjoyment of those 
rights, — that is the question, sir; — whether my property 
shall be protected ; whether I shall be suffered to go home 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 14/ 

to my family at night without being assailed, and threat- 
ened with tar and feathers, and assassination; whether my 
afflicted wife, whose life has been in jeopardy, from con- 
tinued alarm and excitement, shall, night after night, be 
driven from a sick-bed into the garret, to save her life from 
the brick-bats and violence of the mobs; that, sir, is the 
question^ Here, much affected and overcome by his feel- 
ings, he burst into tears. Many, not excepting even his 
enemies, wept — several sobbed aloud — and the sympathies 
of the whole meeting \\ere deeply excited. He continued: 
"Forgive me, sir, that I ha\'c thus betrayed my weakness. 
It was the allusion to my family that overcame my feel- 
ings. Not, sir, I assure you, from any fears on my part. I 
have no personal fears. Not that I feel able to contest the 
matter with the whole community; I know perfectly well I 
am not. I know, sir, \-ou can tar and feather mc, hang me 
up, or put me into the Mississippi, without the least diffi- 
cult}-. But what then.^ Where shall I go.'' I have been 
made to feel that if I am not safe at Alton, I shall not be 
safe anywhere. I recentl)- visited St. Charles to bring 
home my family, and was torn from their frantic embrace 
by a mob. I have been beset night and day at Alton. 
And now, if I leave here and go elsewhere, violence may 
overtake me in my retreat, and I have no more claim upon 
the protection of any other community than I have upon 
this ; and I have concluded, after consultation with my 
friends, and earnestly seeking counsel of God, to remain at 
Alton, and here to insist on protection in the exercise of 
my rights. If the civil authorities refuse to protect me, I 
must look to God; and if I die, I have determined to make 
my grave in Alton." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Riot of November yth — Destruction of the fourth press — 
The murder of Lovejoy — His funeral. 

We have now arrived at the fatal night of the 7th of 
Nov., 1837, and I give the details of the occurrences from 
personal notes of my own. The fourth press had been 
shipped to Alton from Cincinnati, and had been received 
in the dead of the night (on the 6th)* by the friends of Mr. 
Lovejoy, in presence of the mayor, and taken to its final 
destination. 

All was quiet in the City, and we considered the press 
safe from harm, as it lay on storage with the most respon- 
sible and most respected firm in the city. No one had any 
occasion to fear it, so quietly it lay in an upper loft, a mass 
of iron boxed up, the innocent cause of so much bitter feel- 
ing. As night (of the 7th) approached, we gathered in the 
building to talk over the situation, and congratulated each 
other on peace. About nine o'clock, the company of men 
began to disperse to their homes, when Mr. Oilman asked 
if some few of the number would not volunteer to remain 
through the night with him, for he intended staying as a 

* When the press was received, on the night of the 6th, we were fully pre- 
pared to receive and defend it, having, in the building, about sixty men, well 
armed and drilled, stationed on different floors in squads or companies of sufli- 
cient strength to do full execution if the mob should attempt to take the press 
when landed from the boat. I have preserved one original order issued on 
that night to the captain of one of these companies, by Orderly Sergt. J. W. 
Chickering. And a fac-simile of the order is hereto attached. — H. T. 

148 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. I49 

precaution in case the warehouse was attacked. Nineteen 
men answered the call, and the devoted little band pre- 
pared themselves for whatever might occur. An hour had 
elapsed before any signs of disturbance were noticed, but 
then it was evident that a mob was gathering. Messrs. 
Keating and West asked permission to enter into the ware- 
house to confer with Mr. Oilman, and were incautiously 
admitted by some one, who, in my opinion, was not pos- 
sessed of much judgment, for they immediately discovered 
the fact that there was a very small force inside, against 
which to contend. 

They informed us that unless the press was given up to 
the gentlemen outside, the building would be burned over 
our heads or blown up with powder. We had, early in the 
evening, selected for our captain, Enoch Long, who had 
seen some service, thinking occasion might require con- 
certed action on our part. His method of defence was 
much milder than some of us advocated, for we considered 
it best to fire on the mob and make short work of it; but 
he commanded that no one should shoot without his 
order, an order which, from mistaken motives of mercy, 
he hesitated to give until it was too late to intimidate the 
besiegers. 

The crowd gathered and attempted to force an entrance 
into the building, but were temporarily checked in conse- 
quence of the order of our captain to one of his men to fire 
upon them, in return for their shot which had entered the 
building. Our shot proved a fatal one: a man named 
Bishop, one of the mob, was wounded and died before he 
could be taken off from the cfround. The lull was a short 



I50 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

one: the mob returned, reinforced by ruffians who had been 
drinking to inspire themselves with courage, and with 
savage yells they shouted that they would "fire the build- 
ing and shoot every d d Abolitionist as he tried to 

make his escape!" No orders were given us for any con- 
centrated fire at any time; it was all hap-hazard, and every 
man did as he thought best. At this juncture, the mayor 
appeared, and we asked him to lead us out to face the mob, 
and, if they would not disperse upon his command, that he 
should order us to fire upon them. His answer was, that 
he had too much regard for our lives to do that, — but he, 
at the same time, most distinctly justified us in our defence. 
He attempted, afterward, to disperse them himself, but his 
power was gone — they merely laughed at his authority, as 
his weak and nerveless treatment of them, then and on 
former occasions of lawlessness, had destroyed all his influ- 
ence as a magistrate. 

Attempts were now made to fire the building, and against 
one side, in which there were no openings, a ladder was 
placed to reach the roof, on which a man ascended with a 
burning torch. Captain Long called for volunteers to 
make a sortie, in order to prevent the accomplishment of 
their purpose, and Amos B. Rofif, Royal Weller, and Elijah 
P. Lovejoy promptly stepped forth to execute his commis- 
sion. As they emerged from the building into the brilliant 
calm moonlight, shots were fired from behind a shelter, 
and five balls were lodged in the body of Mr. Lovejoy, 
others wounding Mr. Rofif and Mr. Weller. Mr. Lovejoy 
had strength enough to run back and up the stairs, crying 
out, as he went, "I am shot! I am shot! I am dead!" 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. IS I 

When he reached the counting-room, he fell back into the 
arms of a bystander and was laid upon the floor, where he 
instantly passed away without a struggle and without speak- 
ing again. 

Soon Messrs. Keating and West again approached the 
building, and informed Mr. Oilman that the roof was on fire, 
but that " the boys " would put it out if the press should 
be giv^en up — that was all they wanted and nothing should 
be destroyed or any one harmed if the surrender were 
made. Mr. Gilman then, consulting with us all, said that 
there was property of great value on storage, and the in- 
terests of firms all over the State were represented there, 
that he felt great responsibility as Mr. Godfrey, his partner, 
was absent. To save these interests, he thought the build- 
ing had better be abandoned and the press given up. 
Others coinciding in this opinion, it was decided to sur- 
render the press, on condition that the mob would not 
attempt to enter the warehouse until we had left, and, 
further, diat our departure should be without molestation. 
These terms being accepted, we secreted our arms and left 
the building together. 

The dead body of Mr. Lovejoy and the two wounded 
men were guarded by S. J. Thompson, until after the mob 
■entered. I remember, very well, delaying after the rest as 
I had an unusually good rifle, which I desired to place 
where the mob could not possibly discover it. I, thereby, 
escaped the risk the others ran of being shot, for no sooner 
had they left the building than the rioters broke their truce 
and fired more than a hundred bullets after them, but, 
owing to the slope of the ground, the shots passed harm- 
lesslv over their heads. 



152 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

The friends then went sadly to their homes, thinking of 
the stain upon the fair name of their City, and the terrible 
injustice that was there being countenanced. The fire in 
the warehouse was extinguished, and the press was taken 
out and destroyed. 

The next morning, we returned to where the dead body 
of Lovejoy la}', and removed it to his late home. His wife 
was absent at the house of a friend, so prostrated by the 
shock of these terrible events that her life was despaired of 
for many days. Owen Lovejoy received the corpse of his 
brother at the house, and preparations for the funeral, to 
take place the following day, where then made. 

It was a rainy, depressing day, and I well remember now 
how Abram Breath, still a resident of Alton, and myself 
walked through mud and water, together, to the grave. 
We chafed in an angry mood as we thought of the silence 
then enforced upon us! The burial service was simple, 
consisting merely of prayers, by Mr. Lovejoy's constant 
friend, the Rev. Thomas Lippincott, no remarks being 
made, lest the mob should disturb the last sacred rites of 
our beloved friend. There had been no inquest over his 
body, no flowers were strewn upon his coffin. Mob -law 
not only reigned, but was insultingly triumphant. 

It was thought that the silence of death, under such cir- 
cumstances, well became the burial of hberty. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The times and events — Letter from Winthrop S. Oilman, in whose 
warehouse the fourth press had been stored. 

Mr. Winthrop S. Oilman, now of New York, has kindly 
contributed the following statement: 

"Henry Tanner, Esq. — Dear Sir: — It is well known 
that in 1836, the Abolition of Slavery in the Southern 
States became a subject of intense feeling. The Southern- 
ers were a mighty power in Congress, of enormous wealth, 
dictatorial and proud. As the eyes of the Northern people 
opened to see the evils of slavery, they began to discuss 
the subject and to form Abolition societies. This, as is 
well known, provoked the hostility of the South, and the 
right of discussion, the right of petition on the subject, and 
the right of sending Abolition publications through the 
mails were denied. 

"In the South, the people were heated and goaded on 
to madness by the cool interference of the North, with their 
peculiar institution. They were ready with fire and sword 
to persecute to death, and it became dangerous for a North- 
ern man to travel there, unless he would yield to domina- 
tion. 

"In those days, Elijah P. Lovejoy sufifered the loss of 
two or three printing-presses, at Alton, after having passed 
through the same trial with his St. Louis Observer, a Pres- 
byterian newspaper, published first in St. Louis and after- 

153 



154 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

wards at Alton. Lovejoy was a conscientious christian, 
an able writer, moderate in the expression of his views, but 
a perfect Martin Luther for firmness. His publications 
were objected to, by many Abolitionists, as of too mild a 
type. Slave-holders, on the other hand, demanded that 
there be no discussion of the dreaded topic ; but he, fear- 
less and conscientious, declined to banish the subject of 
slavery from his columns. The result of his labors was, 
that friends shipped him a new press, from Cincinnati, to 
take the place of the last, previously destroyed at Alton. 
They were determined that his mouth should not be 
gagged. 

*T resided at Alton at that time, and knew Mr. Lovejoy 
well, though I was not a member of an Abolition society. 
I knew nothing of this fourth press, until after it was 
shipped, but opened our warehouse, at midnight, on the 
6th of Nov., 1837, iri presence of Hon. John M. Krum, the 
mayor of Alton, — a kindly and agreeable gentleman, — and 
had it snugly packed away in our third story, guarded by 
volunteer citizens with their guns. 

"The mayor had been consulted by me and was present 
when the press was landed, and all arrangements were 
made, I believe, with his sanction. He told us he would 
make us all special constables, and would order us to fire 
on the mob, if we were assailed. 

"The next day, I sent my wife, with her infant child, to 
Upper-Alton, to visit her father, and with about twenty 
armed men, only two or three of whom were Abolitionists, 
remained at the warehouse. 

"The result is matter of history, and I will only add a 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 155 

few details. We were assailed b\' a large mob on that 
bright moonlight night, with arms and hootings, with tin 
horns blowing and plenty of liquor flowing among them. 
A part of the mob filed in line on our river front and asked 
to speak with me. I stepped to the second-story door, and 
they demanded Lovejoy's press. I replied that we were 
there to defend it, and declined to give it up. One Carr, 
at the head of the column, raised his pistol to fire, when I 
was pulled away by my associates. 

"Soon after this, the warehouse was fired upon, and the 
fire returned, and one of the mob, named Bishop, was killed. 
The rioters retired a while, but soon came on in new force, 
and placed a ladder against the side of the building in 
order to set fire to the roof Lovejoy was ihen shot, but 
had strength to run up one flight of stairs and say, only, 
*My God, I am shot!' Some of the defenders were 
wounded, and the roof of the warehouse was set on fire. 

"Then Edward Keating, a lawyer, with one Henry West, 
came 1.0 ask a parley, and both were admitted. They, on 
behalf of the mob, offered a truce, on the basis of our not 
being fired upon, if we would leave the building; and that 
no property but the press should be destroyed. The choice 
being between two evils, vi-z.: the burning of our warehouse, 
with goods valued at many thousands of dollars, — some 
the property of third parties, — and the consequent destruc- 
tion of the press; or, giving up the press, with an agree- 
ment that nothing else should be destroyed, and that we 
should not be fired upon when leaving the building, we ac- 
cepted the latter alternative. An additional reason for 
this decision was the fact, that we had been in conflict 



156 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

about two hours, and the church-bell had been ringing,* 
but no help had come to us from the civil authorities, the 
majority of whom appeared to sympathize with the mob. 
You, I recollect, bravely opposed this surrender, but were 
overruled. 

"But what confidence can be placed in an agreement 
made by a mob.-' We ivcrc fired on, whilst leaving the 
building, and the outlaws came in and made their gross 
remarks about the dead Lion, whose body then lay in our 
counting-room, and whose blood had consecrated the soil 
of Alton. Thus they 'strutted to their confusion,' pluming 
themselves on their triumph. Their eyes were holden that 
they could not sec that Lovejoy's bed of shame was his 
real glory, and their exultations over him their deepest 
disgrace. One of the mob, a physician, off"ered his services 
to extract a ball from Mr. Weller, a member of our com- 
pany, which offer, it is hardly necessary to say, w^as declined 
by him. 

"So demoralized was the community by the influence ot 
slavery that I was the only one (of a committee of citizens, 
appointed by a public meeting) that protested against reso- 
lutions which recommended Lovejoy to leave Alton. I 
contended that, as a citizen, he had rights w^hich our com- 
munity ought to protect. On that committee were the 
Hon. Cyrus Edwards, Hon. John Hogan, afterwards of St. 
Louis, and others. But what availed our defence of free- 
speech.-' Naught in the way of protecting the press. For 

* It is an interesting fact, that Mrs. Graves, wife of the Presbyterian minis- 
ter — a slender and delicate woman — opened the church, in her husband's ab- 
sence, and rang the bell with all her strength. 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 1 57 

had we then succeeded in beating oft" the mob, the return 
wave of frenzied, drunken rioters, with accessions from St. 
Louis, Avould, undoubtedly, have overcome us the next 
night." But the value of the defence was enormously great, 
if we consider the advance of anti-slavery sentiment which 
it occasioned. Public meetings were held in the Northern 
States to condemn the murder of the first martyr in the 
cause of Abolition. Mr. Lovejoy was eulogized, as he de- 
served to be. The course taken by the defenders of free- 
speech was also highly commended. 

"We can hardly realize now, how the sacrifices and 
patient sufferings and death of one man should influence 
society so largely. Then it was that Wendell Phillips, a 
young and comparatively unknown lawyer, made Faneuil 
Hall ring with his eloquence, thereby influencing many 
ardent patriots with a new zeal for the destruction of slav- 
ery. Then it was that Owen Lovejoy, who afterwards be- 
came the intrepid and able advocate of Abolition, in Con- 
gress, consecrated his life to the cause, in promoting which 
his brother had met his death. 

"Then, also, was predicted the entire overthrow of a sys- 
tem of tyranny, which it took thirty years of discussion, 
persecution, violence, and war fully to terminate." 

* As showing the spirit of ihe mob, at this time, reference is made to a fac- 
simile of a handbill, posted on my store door a few weeks after the trials in 
court were over, advertising fifty Black-Walnut Coffins for sale, this was occa- 
sioned because I had permitted a press to be established in one loft of my 
building, on which a small paper, called the Altoniau, was published by Parks 
& Breath, good Abolitionists, as the times then went, but it was well known 
in the community that Rifles were kept for sale in that building, and the Cof- 
fins were not called for, they might have been needed had the mob called for 
that press. — H. T. 



CHAPTER XX. 

The voice of the contemporary press — In New York — In Massa- 
chusetts — In Pennsylvania — In Ohio — In Kentucky — In 
Missouri — In Tennessee^In Illinois. 

I have stated in the preface, that no single event in the 
early history of the anti-slavery contest in the United 
States, produced a more profound impression, at the time, 
than did the martyrdom of Lovejoy. The remarks, quoted 
from John Quincy Adams and Dr. Channing, and the edi- 
torial article of the Boston Recorder, each implied that the 
burst of indignation from all parts of the land, as the result 
of this murder, was hardly exceeded by that which followed 
the battle of Lexington, in 1775. 

I give below a few extracts, from newspapers, in different 
States, as specimens of the general utterances of the press: 

NEW YORK. 
From the New- York Evening Post, of Nov. 18, 1837: 
"We cannot forbear expressing in the strongest language 
our condemnation of the manner in which the Missouri 
Argus speaks of this bloody event. The right to discuss 
freely and openly, by speech, by the pen, by the press, all 
political questions, and to examine and animadvert upon 
all political institutions, is a right, so clear and certain, so 
interwoven with our other liberties, so necessary in fact to 
their existence, that, without it, we must fall at once into 
despotism or anarchy. To say that he who holds unpopu- 
lar opinions must hold them at the peril of his life, and 

158 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 159 

that, if he expresses them in pubhc, he has only himself to 
blame if they, who disagree with him, should rise and put 
him to death, is to strike at all rights, all liberties, all pro- 
tection of law, and to justify or extenuate all crimes. 

"We regard not this as a question connected with the 
Abolition of slavery, in the South, but as a question vital 
to the liberties of the entire Union. For our own part, we 
approve, we applaud, we would consecrate, if we could, to 
universal honor, the conduct of those who bled in this gal- 
lant defence of the freedom of the press. Whether they 
erred or not in their opinions, they did not err in the con- 
viction of their right, as citizens of a democratic govern- 
ment, to express them, nor did they err in defending this 
right with an obstinacy which yielded only to death and 
the utmost violence." 

From the Nrcv-York Aiiicricau, then edited by the late 
Hon. Charles King. 

"American blood has been shed, at last, by American 
hands, employed to maintain slavery and crush free dis- 
cussion, * * " 

"The town of Alton, as we have heretofore stated, is in 
the free- State of Illinois, on the Mississippi River, a few 
miles above St. Louis, w^here the law, concerning mobs, as 
pronounced by Judge Lawless, is that they are above and 
beyond its restraints. * '" * 

"If this American blood — shed in the defence of the 
freedom of the press and the right of every American citi- 
zen to think, speak, and print his own honest opinions — be 
not signally vindicated, our representative institutions, our 
boasted freedom, our vaunted safety of property and life. 



l6o THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

will become, and deserves to become, the scoff and derision 

of the world." 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

From the Boston Daily Advocate: 
"LIBERTY MURDERED. 

"The horrid intelligence comes to us, from Illinois, that 
the Rev. Mr. Lovejoy has fallen a victim to the liberty of 
the press. Incarnate fiends and assassins have robbed a 
wife of a husband, children of a father, and society of a 
pure-minded man; for what.' Because he stood under the 
shield of the Constitution, and defended the liberty of the 
press. A glorious cause to die in. Let his memory be 
embalmed. The blood of that innocent man will not sink 
into the ground. It will be required at the hands of all 
those who have raised that infernal spirit of mobism against 
free discussion and a free press." 

From Wm. Lloyd Garrison's Liberator. 

The Liberator was draped in mourning upon the receipt 
of the intelligence of Lovejoy's death. From the time the 
news reached Boston, the columns of that paper were 
crowded with notices of meetings, resolutions, speeches, 
extracts from other papers relating to this subject. 

Particular accounts were given of a meeting of the Mas- 
sachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, and of the great gather- 
ing, at which Dr. Channing's resolutions were adopted, in 
Faneuil Hall: also, a detailed account of a meeting, com- 
memorative of Lovejoy, which was held December 22d, 
1837 (Forefather's Day), in Boston, and of a similar one, 
held in the Broadway Tabernacle, in New York. 

What Mr. Garrison wrote may be summed up in the 



THE MARTYRDOINI OF LOVEJOY. l6l 

following sentence, taken from his editorial, in the issue of 
November 24th, 1837: 

"LOVEJOY DIED THE REPRESENTATIVE OF PHILAN- 
THROPY AND JUSTICE, LIBERTY AND CHRISTIANITY: 
AVELL, THEREFORE, MAY HIS FALL AGITATE ALL HEAV- 
EN AND EARTH." 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

From the PhiladelpJiia Observer: 

"Alton Massacre. — The thrill of sensibility which seems 
to have been produced by the murder of Rev. E. P. Love- 
joy, at Alton, has called forth, from every part of the land, 
a burst of indignation, which has not had its parallel, in 
this country, since the battle of Lexington, 1775- 

"We devote a large space in our paper, to-day, to record 
the simultaneous burst of indignation, which this event has 
occasioned. One thing, which appears from looking over 
our exchange papers, has struck us with amazement, and 
that is, that the most decided expressions of disapproba- 
tion and abhorrence, of the deed, are from the slave-hold- 
ing States. With a large list of southern papers before us, 
"vve find not one attempt at an apology for the murderous 
outrage. The only apologists for it are found in our 
northern cities, and among editors, who have a circulation 
at the South, and some others, who have a pecuniary in- 
terest in retaining the favor of southern customers. What 
are we to infer from this fact.''" 

From the PittsburgJi Times. 

"The Rev. Mr. Lovejoy has fallen a victim to the spirit 
of mobism, which is spreading itself more and more over 
the land. How long this lamentable state of things is to 
II 



1 62 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

continue, Heaven only knows. How long, in this land of 
liberty, and of freedom of opinion, the knife of the assassin 
or the torch of the incendiary will be suffered to awe indi- 
viduals, or frighten public sentiment, we can not pretend, 
with our short sight, to predict; but we believe we are 
borne out by the truth, in affirming that the Alton murder 
has made ten thousand accessions to the cause of Aboli- 
tion. In this number, we do not include ourselves; but, 
although opposed to their cause, we are in favor of extend- 
ing, to every portion of our fellow-citizens, the same right 
that we claim for ourselves, freedom of thought and the 
right of expressing our opinions." 

OHIO. 
From the Paincsvillc Republican: 
"This tragical event, the particulars of which will be 
found in another part of our paper, as given by the mayor, 
is one which calls for the severest reprehensions of every 
Avell-wisher to his country. It is an outrage, not only 
against the rights of individuals, but it is an open, high- 
handed attack on the freedom of speech and of the press, 
which is guaranteed to the people by the blood-bought 
charter of our liberties. We can hardly find language 
severe enough to express our utter abhorrence of such das- 
tardl}', wicked conduct — such a gross violation of those re- 
publican principles which ought to be held sacred by every 
son and daughter of Adam." 

From the Cineinnati Gazette: 
"ALTON, — ARSON, — AND MURDER. 
"The mayor of Alton has issued a kind of extra-official 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 1 63 

account of the arson and murder that recently occurred in 
that City. Its tone is very subdued, apologetical rather 
than otherwise. 

"The measures taken, by the civil authority, appear to 
have been well calculated to encourage the violence they 
were directed to suppress. First, persuasion to those who 
were threatened — second, persuasion to the GcntitDicn Mo- 
bites? Persuasion. When the mayor of a city undertakes 
to persuade a mob, he but invites them to proceed, with an 
almost positive assurance of impunity. We subjoin the 
mayor's statement, that our readers may judge for them- 
selves." 

From the Cincinnati Journal, whose editor was, from 
twelve to fourteen years a lawyer in Georgia: 

"Horrid Tragedy. — The deed is done; the work is 
consummated. The Rev. E. P. Lovejoy is no more — he 
has died by the hands of a mob. 

''Have ive nothing to do zuith slavery in a frcc-Stitc? 
Alas! slavery has something to do with us. Its fangs are 
upon us, rending our vitals. Talk of liberty in America.^ 
The poor privilege left us, in some parts of this fair land, 
is to be silent, to let the head, the heart, the tongue, the 
pen yield to the frantic spirit that riots unawed, unabashed. 
Silence or death. Alton! Alton!! we have heard of thy 
liberalities, of thy open-handed charity, of thy noble efforts 
in every good and benevolent enterprise. W^e loved thee 
for this, for this we honored thee, and thy fair fame was 
was borne on the breath of every wind, and men looked to 
Alton as the home of all that was excellent. Mobs have 



164 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

now made thee a by-word in the land — men hold in their 
breath when thy name strikes upon their ears. Thou art 
a polluted thing — blood is on thy garments. 

"Liberty has found a grave in thy bosom. But hush — 
speak not — a mob is on the throne — the press must be 
dumb; for here, also, we have seen its riots." 

KENTUCKY. 
From the Louisville Journal: 

"The Anti-Abolitionist, no less than the lover of his 
country and the detester of insubordination and crime, has 
cause deeply to regret this most atrocious tragedy. 

"It is well if this martyrdom do not kindle up a flame 
which years, and all the efforts of the patriot, will scarce 
extinguish. Let those, who oppose the Abolitionists, take 
warning from this event, and let them ever remember that 
the only weapons with which these zealots can be success- 
fully encountered, are truth, reason, moderation, and toler- 
ance — and these are the only means to disarm them of 
their fanaticism; and that violence, outrage, and persecu- 
tion will infallibly inflame their zeal, enlarge their numbers, 
and increase the power of their dangerous doctrines." 

From the Louisville Herald : 
"Is a citizen of the United States to have his house — 
his castle — assailed by an armed mob, and is he to be mur- 
dered for defending the rights guaranteed to him by the 
constitution of his country.'' Are such things to be toler- 
ated, and will the presses of thre country, which can find so 
much gall and wormwood, and so many maledictions for 
political opponents, pass by this outrage with a bare ex- 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 1 65 

pression of cold regret? Are the murderers, for such we 
pronounce them, to go unpunished? We trust not, — if 
there is law in the land, we hope they will be made answer- 
able to it, — if not, why then commend us to the despotism 
of the Grand Turk, or the Czar, for they protect their peo- 
ple. The Mississippi, for a century to come, though it may 
pour a constant flood, will not pour enough to wash out the 
disgrace of the horrid murders of Alton, St. Louis, and 

Vicksburgh." 

MISSOURI. 

From the St. Louis Coviuicrcial Bulletin: 
"Be the offences of Lovejoy what they may, if he has 
violated every law of the land, and outraged every feeling 
of society, and every principle of moral and social duty — 
the end of his unfortunate career — the mode and measure 
of his punishment has changed the offender to a martyr, 
and the presuming, daring sinner to an apostle of righteous- 
ness and a saint. His martyrdom will be celebrated by 
every Abolitionist in the land, and the only consolation we 
have is, that it was inflicted upon him in a non-slave-hold- 
ing State." 

TENNESSEE. 

From the Cumberland Presbyterian: 
"And what will European tyrants say to such conduct? 
May they not, in scorn, point their slaves to the free insti- 
tutions of America, and say, behold the workings of demo- 
cratic principles; he that holds opinions, contrary to the 
majority, must die the death. And shall American citi- 
zens boast of the freedom of the press, when he who dares 
to express his sentiments, docs it at the hazard of his life; 



1 66 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

the gag-laws of Europe are mildness itself, compared to the 
bloody tragedy at Alton. 

"And surely the honor of our country, the cause of 
justice, the liberty of the nation, loudly demands that the 
perpetrators of this foul deed shall be dealt with by the 
laws of the land in the severest manner, consistent with 
justice. The honor of republican governments, the vindi- 
cation of the character of these United States loudly call 
upon the civil authorities, of Illinois, to see to it, that the 
murderers of Rev. E. P. Lovejoy shall be brought to con- 
dign punishment." 

ILLINOIS. 
From the Pcofia Register: 

"We have heard the names* of some of the gallant 
party who defended the warehouse, and they are the men 
who, for the last three years, by their christian philan- 
thropy and public and private enterprise, have given to 
Alton the high character which the entire West has 
awarded her. The floating population, which they had 
invited thither — to whom they had given employment — 

* I herewith append the names of all, and so far as known if living and 
where, or if known to be dead — and I believe no evil reports (saving the in- 
dictment alluded to in this book) have been brought against the names of any 
of them. The names of the twenty men, that night in the building, are as 
follows : 

Elijah P. Lovejoy, killed by the mob, Nov. 7, 1837. 

Amos B. Roff, then wounded, since dead. 

Royal Weller, then wounded, since dead. 

William Harned, dead. 

James Morse, Jr., dead. 

John S. Noble, dead. 

Edward Breath, (subsequently missionary to Persia), dead. 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 167 

have become the assassins of the character of the City, 
and the murderers of one of her citizens. 

"We can not use smooth phrases in speaking of these 
enormities. Is human hfe to be held merely at the caprice 
of the rabble.^ 

"Was it for this, our fathers periled their lives and for- 
tunes to effect our national independence.'' Better had it 
been to have remained the subjects of a foreign govern- 
ment, which would have secured to each protection of life 
.and lazi', than to have left these dearest rights of man to 
the tender mercies of a licentious mob." 

Geo. H. Walworth, dead. 
J. C. Woods, dead. 
Geo. H. Whitney, dead. 
Reuben Gerry, dead. 

WiNTHROP S. Oilman, living in New-York City. 
Enoch Lo.xg, living in Sabula, Iowa. 
George T. Brown, living in Alton, III. 
Samuel J. Thompson, died before 1841. 
H. D. Davis, do not know if living or dead. 
D. F. Randall, do not know if living or dead. 
D. Burt Loomis, residence unknown. 
Thaddeus B. Hurlbut, residence, Upper-Alton. 
Henry Tanner, Buffalo, N. Y, 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Dr. Channing's address to the citizens of Boston. 

From the Nciu York American, of 5th Dec, 1837: 
"I feel that I owe to my fellow-citizens and myself, to- 
offer some remarks on the proceedings of the Board of 
Aldermen, in relation to a petition presented to them for 
the use of Faneuil Hall, in order that there might be an 
expression of public sentiment in regard to the late fero- 
cious assault on the liberty of the press at Alton. Had I 
for a moment im.agined, that by placing my name at the 
head of this petition, I was to bring myself before the 
public as I have done, I should have been solicitous to 
avoid the distinction. 

"But the past can not be recalled ; and having per- 
formed this act from a conviction of duty, I can not regret 
it. My only desire is, that its true character may be 
understood by my fellow-citizens, who will not, I believe, 
when they know the truth, give the sanction of their ap- 
probation to the proceedings of the government. 
" The petition was as follows : 

"'Boston, Nov. 27th, 1837. 
" ' To the Mayor and A Idermeji of the City of Boston : 
"'The undersigned, citizens of Boston, request that the 
use of Faneuil Hall may be granted to them on Monday 
evening, Dec. 4th, for the purpose of holding a public 
meeting, to notice, in a suitable manner, the recent murder 
in the city of Alton, of a native of New England and 

168 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 169 

a citizen of the free-State of Illinois, who fell in defence of 
the freedom of the press.' " 

"This petition was rejected by the Board of Aldermen, 
on the ground that the resolutions which might be passed 
at the proposed meeting, would not express the public 
opinion of the City, and would even create a disgraceful 
confusion in Faneuil Hall, or, in other words, would excite 
a mob. I need not say to those who know me, that I am 
incapable of proposing a measure which would seem to 
me fitted to expose the City to tumult. The truth is, that 
the possibility of such an occurrence did not enter my 
thoughts. The object of the proposed meeting was so 
obvious, so unexceptionable, so righteous, and had such 
claims on every friend of order and liberty, that I did not 
pause a moment when I was requested to sign the petition. 
I should have pronounced it impossible that a man of 
common sense and common honesty could view and pass 
over the tragedy of Alton, as a matter touching merely 
the interests of one or another party. To me it had a 
character of its own, which stood out in terrible relief. I 
saw in it systematic, deliberate murder, for the destruction 
of the freedom of the press. The petition was presented for 
one purpose and one only, namely, that the good people of 
Boston might manifest, in the most solemn and impressive 
manner, their deep abhorrence of the spirit of mobs, which 
threatens all our institutions, and particularly might ex- 
press their utter, uncompromising reprobation of the vio- 
lence which has been offered to the freedom of speech 
and press. 

"The Freedom of the Press, the sacredness of this right. 



I/O THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

— the duty of maintaining it against all assaults, — this was 
the great idea to which the meeting was intended to give 
utterance. I was requested to prepare the resolutions, and 
I was meditating this work when I heard the decision of 
the Board of Aldermen. My single aim was, to frame 
such resolutions as should pledge all who should concur in 
them to the exertion of their whole influence for the sup- 
pression of mobs, for the discouragement of violence, for 
the vindication of the supremacy of the laws, and especially 
for the assertion and defence of the freedom of the press. 
My intention was, to exclude all reference to parties, all 
topics about which there could be a division among the 
friends of liberty. No other resolutions could have been 
drawn up in consistency with the petition; and the Board 
of Aldermen had no right to expect any others. To inti- 
mate, that such resolutions would not express the public 
opinion of Boston, and would even create a mob, is to pro- 
nounce the severest libel on the City. It is to assert that 
peaceful citizens can not meet here in safety to strengthen 
and pledge themselves against violence and in defence of 
the dearest and most sacred rights. And has it come to 
this.'' Has Boston fallen so low.-* May not its citizens be 
trusted to come together to express the great principles of 
liberty, for which their fathers died.'' Are our fellow-citi- 
zens to be muida'cd in the act of defending their property 
and of asserting the right of free discussion; and is it 
unsafe in this metropolis, once the refuge of liberty, to ex- 
press abhorrence of the deed.'' If such be our degradation, 
we ought to know the awful truth; and those among us who 
retain a portion of the spirit of our ancestors, should set 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. I/I 

themselves to work to recover their degenerate posterity. 
But I do not beheve in this degeneracy. The people of 
Boston may be trusted. There is a moral soundness in 
this community on the great points involved in the petition 
which has been rejected. There is among us a deep 
abhorrence of the spirit of violence which is spreading 
through our land ; and from this City there ought to go 
forth a voice to awaken the whole country to its danger, 
to the growing peril of the substitution of lawless force for 
the authorit}- of the laws. This in truth was the great 
object of those who proposed the meeting, to bring out a 
loud general expression of opinion and feeling, which 
would awe the spirit of mobs, and would especially secure 
the press from violence. Instead of this, what is Boston 
now doing.' Into what scale is the City now thrown.' 
Boston now sa}'s to Alton, go on; destroy the press; put 
down the liberty of speech; and still more, murder the 
citizens who assert it; and no united voice shall here be 
lifted up against you, lest a like violence should break forth 
among ourselves. 

'Tt is this view of the rejection of the petition which 
deeply moves me. That a petition, bearing my name, 
should be denied, would not excite a moment's thought or 
feeling. But that this City, which I have been proud to 
call my home, should be so exhibited to the world, and 
should exert this disastrous influence on the country, this I 
can not meet with indifference. 

"I earnestly hope that my fellow-citizens will demand the 
public meeting which has been refused, with a voice which 
can not be denied; but unless so called, I do not desire 
that it should be held. If not demanded by acclamation, 



172. THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

it would very possibly become a riot. A government 
which announces its expectation of a mob, does virtually, 
though unintentionally, summon a mob, and would then 
cast all the blame of it on the "rash men" who might be- 
come its victims. 

"But is there no part of our country, where a voice of 
power shall be lifted up in defence of rights incomparably 
more precious than the temporary interests which have 
often crowded Faneuil Hall to suffocation.^ Is the whole 
country asleep? An event has occurred, which ought to 
thrill the hearts of this people as the heart of one man. 

"A martyr has fallen among us to the freedom of the 
press. A citizen has been murdered in defence of the 
right of free discussion. I do not ask whether he was 
Christian or unbeliever, whether he was Abolitionist or 
Colonizationist. He has been murdered in exercising what 
I hold to be the dearest right of the citizen. Nor is this a 
solitary act of violence. It is the consummation of a long 
series of assaults on public order, on freedom, on the 
majesty of the laws. I ask, is there not a spot in the 
country whence a voice of moral reprobation, of patriotic 
remonstrance, of solemn warning, shall go forth to awaken 
the slumbering community.-' There are indeed, in various 
places, meetings of Anti-Slavery Societies to express their 
sorrow for a fallen brother. But in these I take no part. 
What I desired was, that the citizens of Boston, of all 
parties, should join as one man in putting down the reign 
of terror by the force of opinion; and in spreading a shield 
over our menaced liberties, I felt that the very fact that 
the majority of the people here, are opposed to the peculiar 
opinions of our murdered fellow-citizen, would give in- 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 173 

creased authority to our condemnation of this ferocious 
deed. 

"The principles on which I have acted in this affair, are 
such as have governed my whole life. This is not the first 
time in which I have come forward to defend the freedom 
of opinion, the freedom of speech, the freedom of the 
press. Not a few of my fellow-citizens will bear witness 
to the sincerity of my devotion to this cause. The rights 
of a human being to inquire, to judge, and to express his 
honest conviction, these are dear to me as life; and if I 
ask a distinction in society, it is that of being a defender 
of these. I can not, I will not, tamely and silently, see 
these trampled down in the person of a fellow-citizen, be 
he rich or poor, be he friend or foe, be he the advocate or 
the opposer of what I deem the truth. 

"That in these sentiments I have the sympathy of m}' 
fellow-citizens, I can not doubt. I am confident, that, when 
the true import of the petition which I have signed is un- 
derstood, the vast majority will agree with me in the 
fitness of the action which it was intended to promote. I 
liave no distrust of my fellow-citizens. They are true to 
the principles of liberty; and the time, I hope, is near, 
when the stain, now thrown on our ancient and free City, 
will be wiped away, when a petition, headed by a worthier 
name, will assemble the wise and good, the friends of 
order and liberty, of all sects and parties, to bear their 
solemn testimony against the spirit of misrule and vio- 
lence, to express their devotion to the laws, and their un- 
conquerable purpose to maintain the freedom of speech 
and of the press. "Wm. E. Channing." 



CHAPTER XXII. 

The maiden speech of Wendell Phillii)s in Faneuil Hall, 
Boston. 

Rev. William EUery Channing, D.D., headed a petition to 
the Mayor and Aldermen of Boston, asking the use of 
Faneuil Hall for a public meeting. It was thought that the 
spot designated "The Cradle of Liberty," where patriotic 
men had so often met during the struggle of the colonies 
with the mother country, was the only fitting place for 
such a meeting. But the influence of slav^ery among poli- 
ticians was so great that for a time the use of the hall was 
refused. Dr. Channing then addressed a very impressive 
letter to his fellow-citizens, which resulted in a meeting of 
influential Bostonians at the Old Court Room, where re- 
solutions in favor of the meeting were unanimously adopted 
and measures were taken to secure a much greater array of 
names to the petition. This call, the Mayor and Alder- 
men felt constrained to obey. 

The great meeting was held on the Sth of December. 
1837, with the Hon. Jonathan Pliiliips, Icinsman of Wendell 
Phillips who was then a young lawyer, in the chair. 

Dr. Channing made a brief and eloquent address. Re- 
solutions, drawn by him, were then read and offered by 
Mr. Hallctt, and seconded in an able speech by George .S. 
Hillard, Esq. The Hon. James T. Austin, Attorney-Gen- 
eral of the Commonwealth, followed in a speech of the 
utmost bitterness, styled by the Boston Atlas, a few days 
after, "most able and triumphant." He compared the 

174 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 175 

slaves to a menagerie of wild beasts, and the rioters at 
Alton to the "orderly mob" which threw the tea overboard 
in 1773, talked of the "conflict of laws" between Missouri 
and Illinois, declared that Lovejoy was "presumptuous and 
imprudent," and "died as the fool dieth"; in direct and 
most insulting- reference to Dr. Channing, he asserted that 
a clergyman with a gun in his hand, or one "mingling in 
the debates of a popular assembly, v/as marvelously out of 
place." 

The speech of the Attorney-General produced great 
excitement throughout the Hall. Wendell Phillips, now 
so celebrated for his eloquence, who had not expected to 
take part in the meeting, rose to reply. 

That portion of the assembly which sympathized with 
Mr. Austin now became so boisterous, that Mr. Phillips 
had difficulty for a while in getting the attention of the 
audience. Opposition, bluster, and noise, had, however, no 
other effect upon this young man than to inspire his elo- 
quence. Knowing full well that the official who had pre- 
ceded him was faithless to those principles which had 
made the name of Faneuil Hall illustrious, he boldly con- 
demned the Attorney-General's remarks in the following 
pungent and most eloquent address, which took the audi- 
ence by storm: 

"Mr. Chairman: — We have met for the freest discussion 
of these resolutions, and the events which gave rise to 
them. [Cries of 'Question,' 'Hear him,' 'Go on,' 'No 
gagging,' etc.] 

"I hope I shall be permitted to express my surprise at 
the sentiments of the last speaker, — surprised not only at 



176 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 

such sentiments from such a man, but at the applause they 
have received within these walls. A comparison has been 
drawn between the events of the Revolution and the 
tragedy at Alton. We have heard it asserted here, in 
Faneuil Hall, that Great Britain had a right to tax the 
Colonies, and we have heard the mob at Alton, the drunken 
murderers of Lovejoy, compared to those patriot fathers 
who threw the tea overboard! [Great applause.] Fellow- 
citizens, is this Faneuil-Hall doctrine.'' ['No, no.'] The 
mob at Alton were met to wrest from a citizen his just 
rights, — met to resist the laws. We have been told that 
our fathers did the same; and the glorious mantle of 
Revolutionary precedent has been thrown ov^er the mobs 
of our day. To make out their title to such defence, the 
gentleman says, that the British Parliament had a rigJit to 
tax these Colonies. It is manifest that, without this, his 
parallel falls to the ground; for Lovejoy had stationed 
himself within constitutional bulwarks. He was not only 
defending the freedom of the press, but he was under his 
own roof, in arms with the sanction of the civil authority. 
The men who assailed him went against and over the laws. 
The mob, as the gentleman terms it, — mob, forsooth! cer- 
tainly we sons of the tea-spillers are a marvelously patient 
generation! — the 'orderly mob' which assembled in the 
Old South to destroy the tea, were met to resist, not the 
laws, but illegal exactions. Shame on the American who 
calls the tea-tax and stamp-act laxvs ! Our fathers resisted, 
not the king's prerogative, but the king's usurpation. To 
find any other account, you must read our Revolutionary 
history upside down. Our State archives are loaded with 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 1 7/ 

arguments of John Adams, to prove the taxes laid by the 
British Parhament unconstitutional, — beyond its power. 
It was not till this was made out that the men of New 
England rushed to arms. . The arguments of the Council 
Chamber and the House of Representatives preceded and 
sanctioned the contest. To draw the conduct of our an- 
cestors into a precedent for mobs, for a right to resist laws 
we ourselves have enacted, is an insult to their memory- 
The difference between the excitements of those days and 
our own, which the gentleman in kindness to the latter has 
overlooked, is simply this: the men of that clay went for 
the right, as secured by the laws. They were the people 
rising to sustain the laws and constitution of the Province. 
The rioters of our day go for their own wills, right or 
wrong. Sir, when I heard the gentleman lay down princi- 
ples which place the murderers of Alton side by side with 
Otis and Hancock, with Ouincy and Adams, I thought 
those pictured lips [pointing to the portraits in the Hall] 
would have broken into voice to rebuke the recreant 
American — the slanderer of the dead — [Great applause 
and counter applause.] The gentleman said that he should 
sink into insignificance" if he dared to gainsay the princi- 
ples of these resolutions. Sir, for the sentiments he has 
uttered, on soil consecrated by the prayers of Puritans and 
the blood of patriots, the earth should have yawned and 
swallowed him up. [Applause and hisses, with cries of 
'Take that back.' The uproar became so great that for 
a long time no one could be heard. At length, G. Bond, 
Esq., and Hon. W. Sturgis, came to Mr. Phillips' side at 
the front of the platform. They were met with cries of 
12 



178 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

'Phillips or nobody,' 'Make him take back 'recreant',' 
'He sha'n't go on till he takes it back.' When it was 
understood they intended to sustain, not to interrupt, Mr. 
Phillips.] Mr. Sturgis was listened to, and said: 'I did not 
come here to take any part in this discussion, nor do I 
intend to; but I entreat you, fellow-citizens, by every 
thing you hold sacred, — I conjure you by every association 
connected with this Hall, consecrated by our fathers to 
freedom of discussion, — that you listen to every man who 
addresses you in a decorous manner.' Mr. Phillips re- 
sumed: "Fellow-citizens, I cannot take back my words. 
Sureh^ the Attorney-General, so long and well known here, 
needs not the aid of your hisses against one so young as I 
am,— my voice never before heard within these walls ! 
Another ground has been taken to excuse the mob, and 
throw doubt and discredit on the conduct of Lovejoy and 
his associates. Allusion has been made to what lawyers 
understand very well, — 'the conflict of laws.' We are 
told that nothing but the Mississippi River rolls between 
St. Louis and Alton, and the conflict of laws somehow or 
other gives the citizens of the former a right to find fault 
with the defender of the press for publishing his opinions 
so near their limits. Will the gentleman venture- that 
argument before lawyers? How the laws of the two 
States could be said to come into conflict in such circum- 
stances, I question whether any lawyer in this audience can 
explain or understand. 

"No matter whether the line that divides one sovereign 
State from another be an imaginary one or ocean-wide, 
the moment you cross it the State you leave is blotted out 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 1 79 

of existence, so far as you are concerned. The Czar 
might as well claim to control the deliberations of Faneuil 
Hall, as the laws of Missouri demand reverence, or the 
shadow of obedience, from an inhabitant of Illinois. 

"I must find some fault with the statement which has 
been made of the events at Alton. It has been asked 
why Lovejoy and his friends did not appeal to the execu- 
tive, — trust their defence to the police of the City. It has 
been hinted that, from hasty and ill-judged excitement, 
the men within the building provoked a quarrel, and that 
he fell in the course of it, one mob resisting another. 

"Recollect, Sir, that they did act with the approbation 
and sanction of the Mayor. In strict truth, there was no 
executive to appeal to for protection. The Mayor ac- 
knowledged that he could not protect them. They asked 
him if it was lawful for them to defend themselves. He 
told them it was, and sanctioned their assembling in arms 
to do so. They were not, then, a mob; they were not 
merely citizens defending their own property; they were 
in some sense the posse coviitatiis, adopted for the occasion 
into the police of the City, acting under the order of a 
magistrate. It was civil authority resisting lawless vio- 
lence. Where then, was the imprudence.'' Is the doctrine 
to be sustained here, that it is imprudent for men to aid 
magistrates in executing the laws.'' 

"Men are continually asking each other, had Lovejoy a 
right to resist.-' Sir, I protest against the question, instead 
of answering it. Lovejoy did not resist, in the sense they 
mean. He did not throw himself back on the natural 
right of self-defence. 



l80 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

"He did not cry anarchy, and let slip the dogs of civil 
war, careless of the horrors which would follow. 

"Sir, as I understand this affair, it was not an individual 
protecting his property; it was not one body of armed 
men resisting another, and making the streets of a peace- 
ful city run blood with thci/ contentions. It did not bring 
back the scenes in some old Italian cities, where family 
met family, and faction met faction, and mutually trampled 
the laws under foot. 

"No; the men in that house were regularly enrolled, under 
the sanction of the Mayor. There being no militia in 
Alton, about seventy men were enrolled, with the approba- 
tion of the Mayor. These relieved each other every other 
night. About thirty men were in arms on the night of the 
sixth, when the press was landed. The next evening, it 
was not thought necessary to summon more than half that 
number; among these was Lovejoy. It was, therefore, 
you perceive, Sir, the police of the city resisting rioters, — 
civil government breasting itself to the shock of lawless 
men. 

"Here is no question about the right of self-defence. It 
is in fact simply this : Has the civil magistrate a right to 
put down a riot.^ 

"Some persons seem to imagine that anarchy existed at 
Alton from the commencement of these disputes. Not at 
all. 'No one of us,' says an eye-witness and a comrade of 
Lovejoy, 'has taken up arms during these disturbances but 
at the command of the Mayor.' 

"Anarchy did not settle down on that devoted City till 
Lovejoy breathed his last. Till then the law, represented 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVKJOV. l8l 

in his person, sustained itself against its foes. When he 
fell, civil authority was trampled under foot. He had 
'planted himself on his constitutional rights' — appealed 
to the laws, — claimed the protection of the civil authority, 
— taken refuge under 'the broad shield of the constitution. 
When through that he was pierced and fell, he fell but one 
sufferer in a common catastrophe.' He took refuge under 
the banner of liberty, — amid its folds; and when he fell, 
its glorious stars and stripes, the emblem of free institu- 
tions, around which cluster so many heart-stirring memo- 
ries, were blotted out in the Martyr's blood. It has been 
stated, perhaps inadvertently, that Lovejoy or his com- 
rades fired first. This is denied by those who have the 
best means of knowing. Guns were first fired by the mob. 
After being twice fired on, those within the building con- 
sulted together and deliberately returned the fire. But 
suppose they did fire first. They had a right so to do; 
not only the right which every citizen has to defend him- 
self, but the furtiier right which every civil ofiicer has to 
resist violence. Even if Lovejoy fired the first gun, it 
would not lessen his claim to our sympathy, or destroy his 
title to be considered a martyr in defence of a free press. 
The question now is, Did he act within the Constitution 
and the laws.-* 

"The men who fell in State Street, on the 5th of March, 
1770, did more than Lovejoy is charged with. They were 
the first assailants. Upon some slight quarrel they pelted 
the troops with every missile within reach. Did this bate 
one jot of the eulogy with which Hancock and Warren 
hallowed their memory, hailing them as the first martyrs 



1 82 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

in the cause of American liberty? If, Sir, I had adopted 
what are called Peace principles, I might lament the cir- 
cumstances of this case. But all you who believe, as I do, 
in the right and duty of magistrates to execute the laws, 
join with me and brand as base hypocrisy the conduct 
of those who assemble, year after year, on the 4th of July, 
to fight over the battles of the Revolution, and yet 'damn 
with faint praise,' or load with obloquy the memory of 
this man, who shed his blood in defence of life, liberty, 
property, and the freedom of the press! 

"Throughout that terrible night, I find nothing to regret 
but this, that within the limits of our country, civil author- 
ity should have been so prostrated as to oblige a citizen to 
arm in his own defence, and to arm in vain. 

"The gentleman says, Lovejoy was presumptuous and 
imprudent, — he 'died as the fool dieth.' 

And a reverend gentleman* of the city, tells us that no 
citizen has a right to publish opinions disagreeable to the 
community. If any mob follows such publication, on Jiivi 
rests its guilt! He must wait, forsooth, till the people 
come up to it and agree with him! This libel on liberty 
goes on to say, that the want of right to speak as we think 
is an evil inseparable from republican institutions! If this 
be so, what are they worth .^ Welcome the despotism of 
the Sultan, where one knows what he may publish and 
what he may not, rather than the tyranny of this many- 
headed monster, the mob, where we know not what we 

* See Rev. Hubbard Winslovv's discourse on Liberty! in which he defines 
"republican liberty" to be "liberty to say and do what the piTjailiug voice 
and will of the brotherhood will allow and protect. " 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 1 83 

may do or say, till some fellow-citizen has tried it, and 
paid for the lesson with his life. This clerical absurdity 
chooses, as a check for the abuses of the press, not the law, 
but the dread of a mob. By so doing, it deprives not only 
the individual and the minorit}' of their rights, but the ma- 
jority also, since the expression of their opinion may some- 
times provoke disturbance from the minority. A few men 
may make a mob as well as many. The majority, then, 
have no right, as Christian men, to utter their sentiments, 
if by any possibility it may lead to a mob! Shades of 
Hugh Peters and John Cotton, save us from such pulpits! 

"' Iinprudcnt to defend the liberty of the press! Why.^ 
Because the defence was unsuccessful.' Does success gild 
crime into patriotism, and the want of it change heroic 
self-devotion to imprudence.-' Was Hampden imprudent 
when he drew the sword and threw away the scabbard .'' 
Yet he, judged by that single hour, was unsuccessful. 
After a short exile, the race he hated sat again upon the 
throne. 

"Imagine yourself present when the first news of Bunker 
Hill battle reached a New-England town. The tale would 
have run thus: 'The patriots are routed, — the red-coats 
victorious, — Warren lies dead upon the field.' With what 
scorn would that Tory have been received, who should 
have charged Warren with iinprndcncc! Who should have 
said that, bred a physician, he was 'out of place' in that 
battle, and 'died as the fool dictli ! [Great applause.] 
How would the intimation have been received, that War- 
ren and his associates should have waited a better time.? 
But if success be indeed the only criterion of prudence, 
Rcspicc Jiiia/i, — wait til! the end. 



l84' THE MARTYRDOM OF TOVEJOY. 

"' Prcsiiviptuons to assert the freedom of the press on 
American ground! Is the assertion of such freedom 
before the age? So much before the age as to leave one 
no right to make it because it displeases the community ? 
Who invents this Hbel on his country? It is the very 
thing which entitles Lovejoy to greater praise. 

"The disputed right which provoked the Revolution — 
taxation without representation — is far beneath that for 
which he died. [Here there was a strong and general ex- 
pression of disapprobation.] One word, gentlemen. As 
much as thought is better than money, so much is the 
cause in which Lovejoy died nobler than a mere ques- 
tion of taxes. James Otis thundered in this Hall when 
the king did but touch his pocket. Imagine, if you can,, 
his indignant eloquence, had England offered to put a gag 
upon his lips. [Great applause.] The question that stirred 
the Revolution touched our civil interests. This concerns 
us not only as citizens, but as immortal beings. Wrapped 
up in its fate, saved or lost with it, are not only the voice 
of the statesman, but the instructions of the pulpit, and 
the progress of our faith. 

"The clergy ' marvelously out of place' where free 
speech is battled for, — liberty of speech on national sins? 
Does the gentleman remember that freedom to preach was 
first gained, dragging in its train freedom to print? 

"I thank the clergy here present, as I reverence their pre- 
decessors, who did not so far forget their country in their 
immediate profession as to deem it duty to separate them- 
selves from the struggle of 'jG, — the Mayhews and Coop- 
ers, who remembered they were citizens before they were 
clergymen. 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 1 85 

" Mr. Chairman, from the bottom of my heart I thank 
that brave httle band at Alton for resistin;^. We must 
remember that Lovejoy had fled from city to city, — suf- 
fered the destruction of three presses patiently. At length 
he took counsel with friends, men of character, of tried 
integrity, of wide views, of Christian principle. 

"They thought the crisis had come; it was full time to 
assert the laws. They saw around them, not a community 
like our own, of fixed habits, of character moulded and 
settled, but one 'in the gristle, not yet hardened into the 
bone of manhood.' The people there, children of our 
older States, seem to have forgotten the blood-tried prin- 
ciples of their fathers the moment they lost sight of our 
New-England hills. Something was to be done to show 
them the priceless value of the freedom of the press, to 
bring back and set right their wandering and confused 
ideas. He and his advisers looked out on a community, 
staggering like a drunken man, indifferent to their rights 
and confused in their feelings. Deaf to argument, haply 
they might be stunned into sobriety. They saw that of 
which we can not judge, the necessity of resistance. In- 
sulted law called for it. Public opinion fast hastening on 
the downward course, must be arrested. Does not the 
event show they judged rightly.-* Absorbed in a thousand 
trifles, how has the nation all at once come to a stand.-* 
Men begin, as in 1776 and 1640, to discuss principles, to 
weigh characters, to find out where they are. Haply we 
may awake before we are borne over the precipice. 

"I am glad, Sir, to see this crowded house. It is good 
for us to be here. When Liberty is in danger, Faneuil Hall 



1 86 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

has the right, it is her duty, to strike the key-note for these 
United States. I am glad, for one reason, that remarks, 
such as those to which I have alkided, have been uttered 
here. The passage of these resolutions, in spite of this 
opposition led b}^ the Attorney- General of the Common- 
wealth, will show more clearly, more decisively, the deep 
indignation with which Boston regards this outrage." 



CHAPTER XXIIl. 

The Alton Trials — Action of the Grand Jury — Indictment of the 
protectors of the press — A remarkable document — Defence 
by George T. M. Davis — Acquittal — Indictment of the Riot- 
ers — Their acquittal — Conclusion. 

This chapter in American history would be incomplete 
without an outline of the trials which were instituted in 
Alton, immediately after the death of Lovejoy. 

We were under the practice of the "New Code" of 
Judge Lawless, which justified mobs in cases where the 
multitude had been ''seized upon and impelled by tliat mys- 
terious, metapliysieal, and almost eleetric frenzy, ivhieh in all 
ages and nations has lurried on the ivifuriated multitude to 
deeds of death and destructionT Action under the "New 
Code" had culminated in the "death" of a perfectly inno- 
cent and law-abiding citizen, and in the "destruction" of 
his property. But notwithstanding the "electric frenzy," 
it appeared clear that some one had violated the majesty 
of law in Alton, and that that majesty needed to be vindi- 
cated. It was quite natural, therefore, that when the 
Grand Jur}' met, with Thomas G. Hawley, as foreman,"' 
it should find the following indictment: 

* The following named persons composed the jury: 

Thom-IiS G. Hawley, John W. Buffum, 

William Arundell, Samuel C. Pierce, 

John II. Cook, M. II. Carroll, 

William H.-vyden, George Went, 

William L. Wilcox, George McIJride, 
187 



1 88 THE iMARTYRUOM OF LOVEJOY. 

"Of the January Term of the Municipal Court of the 
City of Alton, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and thirty-eight. 

"State of Illinois, i 

•ss.: 

CITY OF ALTON, 3 

"The Grand Jurors chosen, selected, and sworn, in and 
for the body of the City of Alton, in the County of Madi- 
son, in the name and by the authority of the People of 
the State of Illinois, upon their oaths, present that Enoch 
Long, Amos B. Roff, George H. Walworth, George H. 
Whitney, William Harned, John S. Noble, James Morse, 
Jr., Henry Tanner, Royal Weller, Reuben Gerry, Thad- 
deus B. Hurlbut, and Winthrop S. Gilman, all late of the 
City of Alton, in the County of Madison, and State of Illi- 
nois, on the seventh day of November, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, with 
force and arms, at the City of Alton, aforesaid, and 
within the corporate limits of said City, unlawfully, riot- 
ously, and routously, and in a violent and tumultuous man- 
ner, resisted and opposed an attempt, then and there be- 
ing made, to break up and destroy a printing-press, then 
and there being found, the goods and chattels of Benjamin 
Godfrey and Winthrop S. Gilman, and then being in their 
possession, contrary to the form of the statute, in such 

Thomas P. Wooi.ridge, William Rice, 

John Quigley, Walter Schields, 

Eli McGunnegle, Charles J. Barry, 

Thomas Stanton, Reuben Reynolds, 

William Dawes, John Hendrickso.v, 

Dam el Braywell, John McGuire. 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 1 89 

cases made and provided, and against the peace ana dig- 
nity of the people of the State of IlHnois. 

**And the Jurors aforesaid, in the name, and by the au- 
thority aforesaid, upon their oaths aforesaid, do further 
present, that Enoch Long, Amos B. Roff, George H. Wal- 
worth, George H. Whitney, William Harned, John S. 
Noble, James Morse, Jr., Henry Tanner, Royal Weller, 
Reuben Gerry, Thaddeus B. Hurlbut, and Winthrop S. 
Gilman, all late of the City of Alton, in the County of 
Madison, and State of Illinois, on the seventh day of No- 
vember, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hun- 
dred and thirty-seven, with force and arms, at the City of 
Alton, aforesaid, and within the corporate limits of said 
City, unlawfully, riotously, routously, and in a violent and 
tumultuous manner, defended and resisted an attempt, then 
and there being made, by divers persons, to the jurors 
aforesaid unknown, to force open and enter the store- 
house of Benjamin Godfrey and Winthrop S. Gilman, 
there situate, contrary to the form of the statute, in such 
case made and provided, and against the peace and dig- 
nity of the People of the State of Illinois. 

"Francis B. Murdock, 
"Prosecuting Attorney for the Municipal Court of the 
City of Alton. 

"Endorsed upon the back, 'A true bill.' 

"Thomas G. Hawley, Foreman." 

It is true, that these gentlemen, thus indicted, whilst 
quietly resting for. the night, had been attacked in their 
own castle, and had made no defence, until a mob, threat- 
ening their lives, had attempted to break in the doors. 



190 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

But, it is very plain, also, that accordiiiLj to the "New 
Code," they had violated law, by resisting "the electric 
frenzy of the infuriated multitude," which only threatened 
their lives, because they had refused to surrender their 
property. George T. M. Davis, Esq., now of the City of 
New York, was then one of the most prominent members 
of the bar in Illinois, with a very large and exacting busi- 
ness on his hands. He saw the unrighteousness of these 
charges, and immediatelj^ tendered his valuable service, 
free of charge, to the defenders of the press. 

When the trial came on, January 17, 1838, he moved 
the Court that a separate trial be granted Winthrop S. Gil- 
man, alleging, that in no way could he so well show how 
utterly devoid Mr. Gilnian was of any criminal intent, as 
by a separate trial. 

The motion was granted. About sixty of those in 
sympathy with the mob prayed the Court that U. F. Lin- 
der, who was at that time Attorney-General, and whose 
associations and abilities peculiarly fitted him for the work 
of a criminal lawyer, in such a case as this, might be per- 
mitted to assist the attorney for the Municipal Court of 
Alton, and this petition was also granted. 

Without troubling the reader with any details of a long 
and tedious trial, in which the truth came out very clearly, 
that every act of Mr. Gilman, and his associates, was per- 
formed with the concurrence of the Mayor, and, as those 
gentlemen supposed, with the authority of law; and after a 
very able argument by Mr. Davis, and his associate coun- 
sel, Hon. Alfred Cowles, Mr. Gilman was pronounced not 
guilty. 



THE MARTYRDOM OK LOVKJUV. I9I 

The names of the men composing the jury were: James 
S. Stone, Timothy Terrel, Stephen Griggs, Effingham 
Cock, George Allcorn, Peter Whittaker, Horace W. Euf- 
fum, Washington Libbey, Luther Johnson, George L. 
Ward, Anthony Olney, and Jacob Rice. 

The Attorney-General phed his vocation to make the 
wrong appear the right, but it was all in vain. 

Mr. Gilman's course being thus triumphantly vindicated, 
the City Attorney entered a nolle prosequi in the cases of 
his associates. 

With the true spirit of compromise, characteristic so 
often of men of no fixed principle, the Alton Grand Jury 
had also indicted eleven of the ringleaders of the mob, as 
shown by the following indictment: 

"Of the January Term of the Municipal Court, of the 
City of Alton, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and thirty-eight. 

" State of Illinois, » 

■ ss. ' 

CITY OF ALTON, J 

"The Grand Jurors, chosen, selected, and sworn, in and 
for the body of the City of Alton, in the County of Madi- 
son, in the name, and by the authority, of the people of 
the State of Illinois, upon their oaths, present that John 
Solomon, Solomon Morgan, Levi Palmer, Horace Beall, 
Josiah Nutter, James Jennings, Jacob Smith, David Butler, 
William Carr, James M. Rock, and Frederick Bruchy, all 
late of the City of Alton, in the County of Madison, and 
State of Illinois, on the 7th day of November, in the year 
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, 
with force and arms, at the City of Alton, aforesaid, and 



192 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY, 



within the corporate limits of said City, unlawfully, and 
with force and violence, did enter the storehouse of Ben- 
jamin Godfrey and Winthrop S. Oilman, there situate, and 
one printing-press, the property, goods, and chattels of 
the said Benjamin Godfrey and Winthrop S. Gilman, then 
and there being found, did, unlawfully, riotously, and with 
force and violence, break and destroy, contrary to the 
form of the statute, in such cases made and provided, and 
against the peace and dignity of the people of the State 

of Illinois. 

"Francis B. Murdock, 

" Prosecuting Attorney for the Municipal Court of the 
City of Alton. 

"Endorsed, 'A true bill.' 

"Thomas G. Hawley, Foreman." 
The names of the jurors who tried the eleven men 
named in the foregoing indictment, were: Timothy Ter- 
rell, John P. Ash, William S. Gaskins, George Allcorn, 
John Clark, William T. Hankinson, Richard P. Todd, 
Alexander Botkin, Mr. Wheeler, Walter Lachelle, Daniel 
Carter, and Samuel W. Hamilton. 

It is not safe to say, that every man on this list was in 

that mob; but that they were in sympathy with it, there 

can be no doubt. But in Alton, at that time, there was no 

chance of a conviction for taking part in a pro-slavery mob. 

This trial was soon closed. Col. Alexander Botkin* was 



* This Col. Botkin was the same who presented the resoUuion, so "cordi- 
ally adopted," at the Market-House meeting in August, 1837. His resolu- 
tion was thought, at that time, strongly to hint at mob-law, because it pro- 
fessed to deprecate that sort of remedy, and yet it called on Lovejoy to " cease 
persisting to publish an Abolition paper to the injury of the community,''^ and 
"to discontinue his incendiary publications." 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 193 

Foreman of the Jury, and he promptly presented, in behalf 
of the rioters, a Sealed Verdict to the Court, of "Not 
Guilty." 

Thus ended the trials at Alton, which in their day were 
important enough to give rise to the publication of one or 
two books, long since out of print. 



CONCLUSION. 



It hardly becomes one who has earned a place in the 
story, only by "allegiance to a fallen lord," to moralize on 
the events he has recounted. The reader must, therefore, 
be left to draw his own conclusions from ni}- facts. To the 
chief actor in the drama, the occasion called for steadfast 
adherence to principle, and made compromise a crime. 
So was it with our Great Exemplar, before his final entr}- 
into Jerusalem; so was it with ]\Iartin Luther, when the 
gentle Melancthon justified his daring course by replying 
to an objector — ''The times are very sick, and need a sharp 
physician^ So has it been on innumerable occasions in 
the history of the world, when men who have challenged 
the admiration of the race, have counted life as nothing 
worth, compared with the importance of principle. 

In 1837, the imperious beginnings of our great conflict 
Avere upon the country; the momentous events of the war 
have since followed, and blessed will it be for the United 
States, if, after another generation has passed away, the 
remains yet lingering of political intolerance shall have 
ceased throughout the length and breadth of the land. 



APPENDIX 



Official Minutes of the Meeting held at Alton, November 2d, 
1837 — Resolutions otifered by the Rev. Edward Beecher — 
The adjourned meeting — Resolution offered by the Attor- 
ney-General — A compromise report, with a bias — A pro- 
test and an appeal in favor of law — Mr. Lovejoy called 
upon to hold his peace — Alton wants "to be let alone."' 

At a large and respectable meeting of the citizens of the 
City of Alton, held at the counting-room of Messrs. John 
Hogan & Co., on Thursday afternoon, Nov. 2nd, 1837, 
Samuel G. Bailey, Esq., was called to the chair, and \\'ni. 
F. D'Wolf, appointed Secretary.-' 

Mr. Hogan then announced the object of the meeting to 
be, to take into consideration the present excited state of 
public sentiment in this City, growing out of the discussion 
of the Abolition question; and to endeavor to find some 
common ground, on which both parties might meet for the 
restoration of harmony and good-fellowship by mutual 
concession — expressing a fervent wish that so desirable an 
object might be carried into effect. 

He was followed by the Rev. Edward Beecher, of Jack- 
sonville, who stated that the proposal of such a meeting 
had originated from Mr. Hogan, and that it had been 
deemed advisable by him and by Mr. Gilman, that the fol- 

* .See Chapter XVI, 

194 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 1 95 

lowing resolutions should be laid before the meeting for 
their consideration: 

1. Resolved, That the free communication of thoughts 
and opinions is one of the invaluable rights of man; and 
that every citizen may freely speak, write, and print on 
any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty. 

2. Resolved, That the abuse of this right is the only 
legal ground for restraining its use. 

3. Resolved, That the question of abuse must be decided 
solely b}^ a regular civil court, and in accordance with the 
law; and not by an irresponsible and unorganized portion 
of the community, be it great or small. 

4. Resolved, For restraining what the law will not reach, 
we are to depend solely on argument and moral means, 
aided b\' the controlling influences of the spirit of God; 
and these means, appropriately used, furnish an ample de- 
fence against all ultimate prevalence of false principles and 
unhealthy excitement. 

5. Resolved, That where discussion is free and unre- 
strained, and proper means arc used, the triumph of the 
truth is certain; and that, with the triumph of truth, the 
return of peace is sure; but that all attempts to check or 
prohibit discussion will cause a daily increase of excite- 
ment, until such checks or prohibitions are remoxcd. 

6. Resolved, That our maintenance of these principles 
should be independent of all regard to persons or senti- 
ments. 

7. Resolved, That we are more especially called on to 
maintain them in case of unpopular sentiments or persons; 
as in no other cases will any effort to maintain them be 
needed. 



196 



THE MARTVRDOiM OF LOVEJOY 



8. Resolved, That these principles demand the protection 
of the Editor and of the press of the Alton Observe)-, on 
grounds of principle solely, and altogether disconnected 
with approbation of his sentiments, personal character, or 
course, as Editor of the paper. 

9. Resolved, That on these grounds alone, and irrespec- 
tiv^e of all political, moral, or religious differences, but 
solely as American citizens, from a sacred regard to the 
great principles of civil society, to the welfare of our 
country, to the reputation and honor of our Cit}^, to our 
own dearest rights and priv^ileges, and those of our chil- 
dren, we will protect the press, the property, and the 
Editor of the Alton Observer, and maintain him in the 
free exercise of his rights, to print and publish what- 
ever he pleases, in obedience to the supreme laws of the 
land, and under the guidance and direction of the consti- 
tuted civil authorities, he being responsible for the abuse 
of this liberty only to the laws of the land. 

The meeting was then addressed at some length b\- Mr. 
Linder, in opposition to the resolutions; after which, I\Ir. 
Hayden moved that the resolutions be laid on the table. 
At the suggestion of Mr. Hogan and Col. Botkin, this 
motion was subsequently withdrawn by the mo\'er; when 
Mr. Hogan moved that the resolutions be referred to a 
committee, with instructions to report at an adjourned 
meeting. This motion was agreed to; and, it being or- 
dered that said committee should consist of seven gentle- 
men, to be nominated by the chair, the Hon. Cyrus Ed- 
wards, and Messrs. John Hogan, Stephen Griggs, U. F. 
Linder, H. G. Van Wagenen, Thos. G. Hawley, and Win- 
throp S. Gilman, were appointed. 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 197 

Mr. Linder then offered the following resolution, which 
was agreed to: 

Resolved, unanimously, by this meeting. That in the in- 
terim between the adjournment and reassembling hereof, 
if any infraction of the peace be attempted by any party 
or set of men in this community, we will aid to the utmost 
of our power in the maintenance of the laws. 

The meeting then adjourned to meet at the court-room, 
on Friday, the 3d inst., at 2 o'clock P.M. 

Friday, Nov. 3d, 2 o'clock p.m. 

The citizens met, pursuant to adjournment, and the 
meeting being called to order by the chairman, Mr. Linder 
offered the following resolution, which was unanimously 
agreed to without debate : 

Resolved, That this meeting shall be composed exclu- 
sively of tlie citizens of Madison County; and that it is 
requested that none others shall vote or take part in the 
discussion of any subject that may be offered for their 
consideration; but all persons in attendance, other than 
citizens, will consider themselves as welcome spectators.* 

The Hon. Cyrus Edwards, from the committee ap- 
pointed at the previous meeting, then made the following 
report, which was read : 

The committee appointed to take under consideration 
certain resolutions submitted at our last meeting, beg 
leave to report: that they have given to those resolutions 
a deliberate and candid examination, and are constrained 
to say that, however they may approve their general spirit, 
they do not consider them, as a whole, suited to the 

* Mr. Beecher resides in Morgan County. Hence the resolution. 



198 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

exigenc}- which has called together the citizens of Alton. 
It is notorious, that fearful excitements have grown out of 
collisions of sentiment between two great parties on the 
subject, and that these excitements have led to excesses 
on both sides deeply to be deplored. Too much of crim- 
ination and recrimination have been indulged. On the 
one hand, the Anti-Abolitionists have been charged with a 
heartless cruelty, a reckless disregard of the rights of man 
and an insidious design, under deceptive pretexts, to per- 
petuate the foul stain of Slaver}'. They have been loaded 
with many and most opprobrious epithets, such as pirates, 
man-stealers, etc., etc. On the other hand, the Abolition- 
ists have been too indiscriminately denounced as violent 
disturbers of the good order of society, wilfully incendiary 
and disorganizing in their spirit, wickedly prompting ser- 
vile insurrections, and traitorously encouraging infractions 
of the constitution, tending to disunion, violence, and 
bloodshed. These uncharitable impeachments of motives 
have led to an appalling crisis, demanding of every good 
citizen the exertion of his utmost influence to arrest all 
acts of violence, and to restore harmony to our once peace- 
ful and prosperous, but now distracted. City. It is not to 
be disguised, that parties are now organizing and arming 
for a conflict, which may terminate in a train of mournful 
consequences. Under such circumstances have we been 
convened. And your committee are satisfied that nothing 
short of a generous forbearance, a mild spirit of concilia- 
tion, and a yielding compromise of conflicting claims, can 
compose the elements of discord, and restore quiet to this 
agitated community. They are, therefore, forced to regard 



1 



Tlir. MARTVRDC^M OF LOVEJOY. 199 

the resolutions under consideration as falling short of the 
great end in view; as demanding too much of concession 
on the one side, without equivalent concession on the 
other. Neither party can be expected to yield cver}'- 
thing, and to acknowledge themselves exclusively in the 
u rong. In this there is no compromise. There must be 
a mutual sacrifice of prejudices, opinions and interests, to 
accomplish the desired reconciliation — such a sacrifice as 
led to the adoption of the great charter of American free- 
dom; which has secured to ourselves, and which promises 
a continuance to our posterit}', of the blessed fruits of 
peace, prosperity, and union. Whilst, therefore, we fully 
and freely recognize the justness of the principles engraft- 
ed upon our constitutions, that the free communication of 
thoughts and opinions is one of the invaluable rights of 
man, and that every citizen may freely speak, write, and 
print on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of 
that liberty; that the abuse of this right is the only legal 
ground for restraining its use; that the question of abuse 
must be decided solely by a regular civil court, and in 
accordance with the law, and not by an irresponsible and 
unorganized portion of the community, be it great or small 
— your committee would, with earnest opportunity, urge 
as a means of allaying the acrimony of party strife, the 
unanimous adoption of the following preamble and resolu- 
tions: 

Whereas, it is of the utmost importance that peace, har- 
mony, order, and a due regard to law, should be restored 
to our distracted community; and, whereas, in all cases of 
conflicting opinions about rights and privileges, each party 



20O THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

should yield something in the spirit and form of com- 
promise: Therefore, 

1. Resolved, That a strong confidence is entertained that 
our citizens will abstain from all undue excitements, dis- 
countenance every act of violence to person or property, 
and cherish a sacred regard for the great principles con- 
tained in our Bill of Rights. 

2. Resolved, That it is apparent to all good citizens, that 
the exigencies of the place require a course of moderation 
in relation to the discussion of principles in themselves 
deemed right, and of the highest importance ; and that it is 
no less a dictate of duty than expediency to adopt such a 
course in the present crisis. 

3. Resolved, That so far as your committee have pos- 
sessed the means of ascertaining the sense of the com- 
munity, in relation to the establishment of a religious 
newspaper, such a course would, at a suitable time, and 
under the influence of judicious proprietors and editors, 
contribute to the cause of religion and good citizenship, 
and promote the prosperity of the city and country. 

4. Resolved, That while there appears to be no disposi- 
tion to prevent the liberty of free discussion, through the 
medium of the press or otherwise, as a general thing, it is 
deemed a matter indispensable to the peace and harmony 
of this community that the labors and influence of the late 
Editor of the Observer be no longer identified with any 
newspaper establishment in this City. 

5. Resolved, That whereas it has come to the knowledge 
of your committee that the late Editor of the Observer 
has voluntarily proposed to the proprietors and stock- 
holders of the Alton Observer, to relinquish his interest 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 201 

and connection with that paper, if, in the opinion of his 
friends, that course were expedient; your committee con- 
sider that such a course would highly contribute to the 
peace and harmony of the place, and indicate, on the part 
of the friends of the Observer, a disposition to do all in 
their power to restore the City to its accustomed harmon}' 
and quiet. 

6. Resolved, That we would not be understood as reflect- 
ing in the slightest degree upon the private character or 
motives of the late Editor of the Alton Observer, by any- 
thing contained in the foregoing resolutions. 

Mr. Linder then took the floor, in support and explana- 
tion of the views taken by the committee, and urged the 
adoption of the resolutions reported by them, with much 
earnestness. When he closed his remarks, Winthrop S. 
Oilman, one of the committee, handed the following pro- 
test against some of the sentiments expressed in the 
report; which he desired should be made a part of the 
record of the meeting. 

W. S. Oilman, from the committee, protested against so 
much of the report as is contained in the resolutions; al- 
leging it as his opinion, that the rigid enforcement of the 
law would prove the only sure protection of the rights ot 
citizens, and the only safe remedy for similar excitements 
in future. 

The Rev. E. P. Lovejo}-, Editor of the Observer, here 
addressed the meeting at some length, in a speech declara- 
tory of his right, under the Constitution of this State, to 
print and publish his opinions, and of his determination to 
stand on this right, and abide the consequences, under a 
solemn sense of duty. 



202 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 

He was followed by Mr. Hogan, who took a wholly 
different view of the subject; and contended that it was 
the duty of Mr. Lovejoy, as a Christian and patriot, to 
abstain from the exercise of some of his abstract rights, 
under existing circumstances. In the course of his re- 
marks, the former referred to the pledge said to have been 
publicl}' given by the latter, when he first came to Alton; 
and observed, that at that time he most certain!}- did 
understand Mr. L. to sa}^, that, inasmuch as he had left a 
slave-holding State, and had come to reside in a free 
State, he did not conceive it his duty to advocate the cause 
of emancipation, and did not intend doing so. 

The Rev. F. W. Graves then rose in explanation; and 
asked Mr. Hogan whether Mr. Lovejoy did not, at the 
time referred to, distinctly state that he yielded none of 
his rights to discuss any subject which he saw fit. 

Mr. Hogan replying in the affirmative, Mr. G. proceeded 
to remark, that when Mr. L. arrived in this Git}-, he enter- 
tained the views attributed to him by the gentleman who 
had just taken his seat; that a change had subsequently 
taken place in his opinions; and that, at a certain meeting 
of the friends of the Observer, he (Mr. L.) had made 
known this alteration in his sentiments, and asked advice 
whether it was best to come out in public on the subject; 
that, under the circumstances of the case, it was deemed 
most proper to let the paper go on — there then being no 
excitement in the public mind. Mv. G. next alluded to the 
present excited state of the popular feeling; and saici that 
the friends of the Observer had lately received communi- 
cations from all parts of the country, and even from Ken- 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 203 

tucky, Missouri, and Mississippi, urging the necessity of 
re-establishing the press. 

Mr. Linder followed in reply; and said he now under- 
stood the whole matter. It was a question, whether the 
interest and feelings of the citizens of Alton should be 
consulted; or whether we were to be dictated to by for- 
eigners, who cared nothing but for the gratification of 
their own inclinations, and the establishment of certain 
abstract principles, which no one, as a general thing, ever 
thought of questioning. He concluded his remarks by 
ofifermg the following resolution: 

Resolved, That the discussion of the doctrines of imme- 
diate Abolitionism, as they have been discussed in the 
columns of the Alton Observer, would be destructive of 
the peace and harmony of the citizens of Alton, and that, 
therefore, we cannot recommend the re-establishment of 
that paper, or any other of a similar character, and con- 
ducted with a like spirit. 

The resolution having been read, Mr. Edwards rose, and 
expressed the hope that its adoption would not be pressed 
at this moment. He dwelt with great earnestness and 
effect on the importance of calmness in our deliberations; 
and trusted that the present meeting would be productive 
of good to the community. The resolution was then laid 
on the table. 

Judge Hawley then made a few very eloquent and ap- 
propriate remarks on the subject for which this meeting 
had been called, and concluded by offering the following 
preamble and resolution, which were read, and laid on the 
table for the present: 

WhereA-S, great and general excitement has for some 



204 'I'HE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

time past prevailed with the people of the City of Alton, 
in relation to the publication of the doctrines of Abolition, 
as promulgated by Mr. E. P. Lovejoy, in a paper called the 
Alton Observer; and whereas, as a consecjuence of that 
excitement, personal violence has been resorted to in the 
destruction of said press: Therefore, 

Resolved, That whilst we decidedly disapprove of the 
doctrines, as put forth by the said Lovejoy, as subversive 
of the great principles of our Union, and of the prosperity 
of our young and growing City, we at the same time 
decidedly disapprove of all unlawful violence. 

The question, on agreeing to the report of the com- 
mittee, was then called for; and on motion of Mr. Hogan, 
the resolutions being taken up separately, were severally 
disposed of as follows: resolutions i, 2, and 4, were agreed 
to unanimously; and resolutions 3, 5, and 6, were stricken 
out. The report, as amended, was then agreed to. 

The resolution offered by Mr. Linder, and laid on the 
table, was then taken up, and agreed to; as was also that 
subsequently introduced by Judge Hawley, after striking 
out the preamble from the latter. 

Mr. Krum then offered the following resolution, which 
was also agreed to: 

Resolved, That as citizens of Alton, and the friends of 
order, peace, and constitutional law. we regret that persons 
and editors from abroad have seen proper to interest 
themselves so conspicuously in the discussion and agita- 
tion of a question, in which our City is made the prin- 
cipal theatre. The meeting then adjourned, sine die. 

Samuel G. Bailev, Chairman. 

W. F. D'WOLF, Seeretary. 



APPENDIX B. 

Contemporary discussion in the United States Senate and House 
of Representatives — Remarks by Clay, Calhoun, Buchanan, 
Henry A. Wise, Legare', Rhett, and others — Southern mem- 
bers leave the hall in a body. 

Extracted from the Covnnoxial Transcript, Baltimore, 
Dec. 19, 1837. 

The following- extracts give the reader some faint idea 
of the excitement in the U. S. Congress on the subject of 
Slavery, forty-two years ago. Henry Clay seldom came 
forward without presenting in himself a specimen of moral 
grandeur, which excited general admiration. For many 
years he stood like a rock in the midst of angry waves, 
holding with a firm hand those great principles which 
alone can sustain our republic : 

"The scene of those inflammatory discussions on the 
Abolition and Texas questions, was to-day — December 18, 
1837, — shifted from the House to the Senate, producing 
there one of the most animated discussions ever witnessed 
within its walls. 

A memorial from some persons in New Jersey against 
the annexation of Texas, presented by Mr. Wall of that 
State, was "the first circumstance that gave rise to the ex- 
citing scenes that followed. Mr. Preston moved to have it 
laid on the table, and accompanied his motion with de- 
nouncing bitterly the bringing before Congress such 
papers, and notifying the Senate of his intention to in- 

205 



206 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

troduce a measure, having for its object the annexation of 
Texas to the United States' territory. The motion to lay 
on the table prevailed. The sensitiveness evinced by Mr. 
Preston on this matter served to pitch the feelings of the 
other Southern Senators to a similar tone, which at once 
manifested itself, when Mr. Wall presented a petition from 
his State, praying for the Abolition of Slavery in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia. 

Mr. Grundy moved to la>' it on the table. Mr. Preston 
having called for the question whether it should be receiv- 
ed, a debate of deep interest took place, in which every 
Senator seemed to think himself bound to participate. 
The question resolved itself into the rigJit of petition. 
Messrs. Clay and Davis were the most conspicuous sup- 
porters of the principle that the right of petition is inv^alu- 
able, and labored to show that mosi of the feeling of ex- 
citement now among the people at the North upon the 
subject, was not so much from a support of Abolition as 
the result of their supposing this right to be threatened 
and taken from them. They thought the best plan to 
appease this ferment of the public mind, would be to refer 
the petitions to the Committee on the District of Colum- 
bia. This principle was most violently opposed by Messrs. 
Calhoun, Preston, Strange, Buchanan, and others, who in- 
sisted upon the gross injury to the interests of the South 
that would result from its being put into practice. 

Mr. Preston's manner and words were especially signifi- 
cant. He said, the South looked to Congress for protec- 
tion in such an emergency, and if that was refused, it 
would protect itself, for the accomplishment of which, the 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 20/ 

proper measures would be at once resorted to. There was 
no noise or anger in the deHvery of such remarks as these, 
at the close of his speech, but all was solemnity and cool 
earnestness. Mr. King, of Alabama, in some exciting re- 
marks, observed that he had been at the North recently, 
and had seen how the Abolition feeling was industriously 
fanned b}^ certain political knaves and demagogues, and 
was made use of for party purposes. Mr. Davis, of Mass., 
in reply said, that if such were the case, the feeling was 
confined to no particular party; and, indeed, one may see 
in the Senate itself, how this question will divide the ranks 
.of the opposite parties there. Mr. Clay, in reply to some 
heated observations from Mr. Calhoun, upon the prospect 
of disunion from the agitation of the Abolition question, 
poured out one of his glowing bursts of eloquence upon 
the stability of our institutions, which seemed, for a time, 
to efface the subject of debate from every Senator's mind. 
It was a theme on wliich patriots of all parties could have 
but one common feeling. 

Mr. Calhoun had insisted upon the absurdity of handing 
over to consideration and argument, any petitions having 
for their object such fanatical schemes as those which 
characterize the Abolition memorials. He thought they 
deserved no more notice or consideration than a petition 
to abolish the Christian religion, or to burn the Northern 
factories. Mr. Clay, in reply, asserted that the whole 
spirit of our Government was based upon argument, and 
that he held in low estimation any institutions that could 
not stand such a test. It was here he alluded, in a mojt 
expressive manner, to a remark made to him at the com- 



208 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 

mcncemen't of the late war by James Madison, who re- 
plied to some important wishes made by him, that diplo- 
matic notes should cease, and action should be used — by 
gravely saying, "You forget, Mr. Clay, that our Govern- 
ment is founded on rcasonr 

The whole speech was one of the finest ever made by 
the great orator. 

Mr. Grundy's motion, to lay the petition on the table, 
was finally carried, — 25 ayes — 20 nays. 

The Baltimore American gives the following account of 
the same scene: 

"The debate was long, spirited, and drew forth much of 
the acrimony and bitter feeling of the Senators from the 
South, North, and West. The discussion began on a peti- 
tion presented by Mr. Wall, of New Jersey, praying for 
the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia. A 
motion was made to lay the petition on the table. 

Mr. Cl.\Y, of Kentucky, begged that the motion to lay 
upon the table should be withdrawn; the motion was 
withdrawn. Mr. Clay took the floor, and said he was 
anxious to learn from the Senators representing free 
States, what were the causes, and what the extent of the 
Anti-Slavery feeling in the North.'' Was it upon the in- 
crease or upon the decrease.-' Was not the increase caused 
by supposition, on the part of the petitioners, that the 
right of petition had been invaded by a refusal on the 
part of Congress to receive and refer petitions.'' Would 
not the petitions decrease if they were referred to a com- 
mittee, and a report, a calm, dispassionate, tranquil, rea- 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 209 

soning report be presented for the consideration of the 
American People? Such was the purport of the questions 
presented by Mr. Clay. 

Messrs. Wall, of New Jersey, Prentiss, and Swift, 
of Vt., Niles, of Connecticut, and other Northern Sena- 
tors, all responded affirmatively to the question of Mr. 
day. Without exception, they said that they believed that 
a reference of the petitions would limit agitation, check 
discussion, heal the public wounds, and, in a measure, end 
the getting up and reception of petitions. 

The discussion branched out. Northern and Southern 
feeling both became enlisted, and the discussion finally 
seemed to rest with Mr. Cla\' and Mr. Calhoun. The 
South Carolina and Kentuck}^ Senators both addressed the 
Senate three or four times, and with much warmth of feel- 
ing. Mr. Calhoun persisted in his determination against 
the reception of petitions, against all reference, all reports, 
and all discussions. 

Mr. Clay as warmly persisted in favor of reception, ref- 
erence, consideration, and a report from the Committee, 
against the prayer of the petitioners. 

The Senator from South Carolina said the question of 
Union and Disunion hung upon the result. Mr. Clay 
answered that he believed no such thing. He felt con- 
vinced, he said, that the people would listen to reason, to 
argument, and to all dispassionate appeal, most willingly, 
and with universal respect. Disunion he did not fear, and 
he wished the Senator from South Carolina would, instead 
of opposing the receptions, bring in a Joint Resolution that 
every member of Congress should be called to order by 
the presiding-officer when he even made an allusion to dis- 



2IO THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 

union. For himself, he would join heart and hand, in the 
support of such a measure. 

House of Representatives. 

On the 20th December, 1837, the excitement in the 
House of Representatives, at Washington, was even greater 
than it had been on the i8th, in the Senate. 

It then culminated in a call, by the impulsive Mr. Wise, 
of Virginia, for the "Southern delegation to leave the 
hall." They were ready then for a caucus, because, mad- 
dened by the mere presentation of humble petitions; they 
had not yet "screwed their courage to the sticking place," 
where a dissolution of the Union was to be demanded. 

Unfinished Business was then made the order of the 
day in the House, and the unfinished business was well 
named W\q further consideration of the Petitions praying for 
the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia. 

The merit of the whole slave question was involved in 
the discussion, and the day has been in the House one of 
unusual 'excitement. i\Ir. Slade has had the floor the 
most of the da\', and, coming from Vermont, where Aboli- 
tionism grows u[) spontaneously with children to manhood, 
you can imagine the character of his petitions and his 
speech. To speak of it in a {q^m words, it is the very 
essence of all that Thompson, Garrison, May & Co. have 
written and spoken on the exciting topic of Slavery. 

In the very outset of his remarks he was interrupted by 
Mr. Wise, of Virginia, for intimating that the motion to 
lay Abolition memorials upon the table was the result of 
combination, etc., on the part of Southern members. Mr. 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. n2II 

Dawson, of Georgia, also called him to order for the same 
reference, and Mr. Slade satisfied them, by disclaiming all 
personal feeling, and all personal references in regard to 
the charge. Mr. Slade continued his remarks, and the 
Southern members became more and more excited. The 
Speaker at length called him to order for wandering from 
his subject. 

Mr. Legare, of South Carolina, got the floor, and asked 
permission to say a few words. He was under the influ- 
ence of great feeling and excitement, and begged the 
member from Vermont not to proceed. 

Mr. L., as one of the most eloquent men in the House, 
was too much excited at the present moment to speak 
with any degree of coolness. 

With great ardor and gusto he vindicated the South — 
her dearest interests and her peace — her domestic happi- 
ness — all that she had and was — was identified with this 
question, and he, therefore, begged that the member from 
Vermont would desist. 

Mr. Slade refused again and again to yield the floor, 
except when called to order by the members of the House, 

Mr. Dawson, of Georgia, twice asked permission to 
reply to some severe remarks made by Mr. S., but Mr. S. 
refused to yield the floor. 

Here Mr. Legare, much excited, moved an adjourn- 
ment, although it was not then one o'clock. 

Mr. Legare's motion was not in order, and of course was 
not put by the Speaker. Mr. Dawson, of Georgia, called 
for the order of the day — the further consideration of the 
President's message. The motion was not in order, and 
Mr. Slade was again suffered to proceed. 



212 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOV. 

For a half- hour, Mr. Slade went on without intermis- 
sion, animadverting, in strong language, not merely upon 
Slavery in the District of Columbia, but in all the States. 

Mr. Dawson, Mr. Wise, and Mr. Rhett called him to 
order. But, from the nature of the subject, which I will 
explain by-and-bye, Mr. Slade was not out of order, and 
was again suffered to proceed. 

The House at length became too hot, Mr. Slade's re- 
marks too personal, and the Southern members too much 
excited to hear more. 

Mr. Rhett and Mr. Wise, at the same moment, called 
him to order, and for the first time, the call was in order. 
Mr. Slade was reading the opinions of several distinguished 
men upon the merits of Slavery. 

By a rule of the House, it is not in order to read from 
any document, book, or pamphlet, without the consent of 
the House. The members, objected, and Mr. Slade was 
compelled to take his seat. This, however, was the least 
exciting part of the scene. Mr. Wise, after saying that 
Mr. Slade had entered into a full examination of the 
merits of the Slave Question, CALLED UPON THE 
SOUTHERN DELEGATION TO LEAVE THE 
HALL!! "Agf^eed!" agreed!" agreed!" was responded 
by a dozen voices, and in company with twenty or twenty- 
five members from the Southern States, Mr. Wise left the 
hall. 

The House was here in great confusion. A half-dozen 
members rose upon the floor, calling and being called to 
order. 

Mr. Rhett said that the Southern Delegation would 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY./ 213 

meet in the District of Columbia committee-room, at 3 
o'clock. 

Mr. Slade begged permission to go on in order. 

Mr. McKay, of North Carolina, called him to order, and 
the Speaker told him to take his seat. His motion "to be 
permitted to proceed in order," was, however, put to the 
House, and the yeas and nays demanded. A motion was 
now made to adjourn. Mr. Adams, of Massachusetts, de- 
manded the yeas and nays. The House seconded the call, 
and the result was 106 in favor of adjournment, and 65 
against it. 

Mr. Campbell, of South Carolina, at this moment ap- 
peared in the Hall, having been selected by the Southern 
members, in the committee -room, to request the attend- 
ance of all the members representing the interests of the 
South. 

The House then adjourned. 

P.S. — Mr. Slade's petition for the Abolition of Slavery 
in the District, was accompanied with instructions to re- 
port a bill for the Abolition of Slavery in the District of 
Columbia. 

The Report made his remarks in order, and hence the 
reason why he was not called to order with success. 



APPENDIX C. 
NOTES ON THE TEXT. 
By Dr. SAMUEL WILLARD, Chicago. 



At the wish of Mr. Tanner and of the publishers, I have 
determined to add some further history of the times and 
the men herein commemorated, confirming, by the testi- 
mony of another witness, much that is here, and illustra- 
ting Mr. Tanner's statements here and there by fuller 
detail. 

The Anti-Slavery conflict early attracted my attention 
and my interest; in the winter of 1830-31, I heard Wm. 
Lloyd Garrison lecture on slavery, to a small audience, in 
Julien Hall, Boston, when he was so insignificant that no 
opposition beset him; and though I was but a child, I 
learned the lesson of horror of slavery. My father was a 
personal friend of Mr. Lovejoy, and, like him, was a mem- 
ber of the Presbyterian church, and of that particular 
church in Upper-Alton to which Mr. Lovejoy used to 
preach. I often heard him preach, and distinctly remem- 
ber his form, his face, and his manner in the pulpit and 
among his fellows. He was not unfrequently at my father's 
house. I still have, as a relic, type once used in printing 
the Alton Observer, which were thrown out when the mob 
of August 2ist, 1837, devastated the printing-office. Sev- 
eral of the scenes here described were witnessed by me; 
and many of the actors on both sides I knew. I remember 
when the first copy of the .S7. Louis Observer came into our 
house, and I have a copy of the last issue that bore the 
name of the Alton Observer. 



2l6- THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

Mr. Tanner seeks to impress the reader with the fact 
that Mr. Lovejoy was not Hke Luther, and Knox, and the 
reformers who have been noted at once for energy and 
violence; and who remind us of the saying of the gospel 
that the kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the 
violent take it by force. What is said on page twenty-two 
of his appearance and demeanor is well said. As I recall 
him, there comes up such a man as Mr. Tanner describes, 
and a round pleasant face, full of good-humor, and beam- 
ing with kindness and gentleness. I saw him in the midst 
of the excitement of the Convention, described on page 
134, and witnessed the wonderful calmness and mildness 
of his demeanor when all about him were excited, and 
Usher F. Linder shook his fist in Mr. Lovejo}''s face, sa 
near that he lacked not much of striking him. Mr. Love- 
joy was not in the least a Boanerges, or 'son of thunder,' 
but a gentle man, always. His firmness was not that of 
passion and obstinacy, but the gentle persistence of one 
who felt that he was right, and that he must prevail as 
the sun prevails against winter, by mild shining, and not 
by storm. There was no bitterness in his heart, no venom 
on his tongue, no sound of fury in his voice. He is 
entitled to be ranked with the St. John of tradition, or 
the sweet St. Francis di Assissi of the Catholic Church. 
No man seemed less fitted to stand foremost in a great 
struggle; and yet that dreadful lot befel him; and we see 
that it was best that he should be such a man, so that, to 
use the words of the poet, 'his virtues might plead like 
angels, trumpet-tongued, against the deep damnation of 
his taking-off.' 

Mr. Tanner tells, on page 124, of the first destruction 
of the Alton-Observer press, and the destruction of the 
office. The office was in the second story of a building 
on Second Street, the principal business street of Alton ; 
and the building was next to the Piasa Creek, which is 



THE MARTYKDOiM OF LOVEJOY. 21/ 

now covered in as a sewer. Mr. Godfrey, of the firm of 
Godfrey & Gilman. had a considerable pecuniary interest 
in the office. He is reported to have disapproved of any 
attempt to defend the office by force, as if it were a fort; 
and it was reported that arms, which some of the printers 
had in the office, were taken away. The mob certainly 
took good care not to suffer any hurt. The windows were 
demohshed by volleys of stones which were abundantly 
furnished by the newly-macadamized street; and after it 
was seen that there was no app irent resistance, a ladder 
was set up to a window, and one of the mob crept up. 
One who looked on told nu that the fellow was afraid to 
go in, and peered into tiie dark room with the utmost 
caution, ready to make a precipitate retreat. Perhaps a 
Httle firmness then, even the sw.ft and effective stroke ot 
a stone, might have turned, at least for awhile, the course 
of events. 

The noise, and the rumor of the misdeed, drew many to 
the spot. Among those who came was Mr. Wm. Harned, 
keeper of a hotel on State Street. Mr. Harned was a 
Kentuckian, with no liking for AboHtionists, and indeed, 
filled with the usual prejudices against them; but what he 
saw then and there changed his mind and stirred his heart, 
so that he joined himself to the despised band, and was 
with Mr. Lovejoy on the night of his death. Mr. Harned 
said that when he looked on, and recognized the men who, 
as spectators, approved the violence, such men as Caleb 
Stone, and Dr. Hope, and Dr. Heall, and the men whose 
names appear in the indictment against the rioters of 
November 7th, he said to himself, 'what these men hate 
must be good: they are never on the right side.' Thus 
the line began to be drawn between the true and loyal 
men, and the cowards and traitors to freedom and rights 
on the other. Mr. Harned's action forthwith corresponded 
to his new convictions, and he never wavered. 



2l8 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

Mr. Tanner speaks of the rumor that armed men came 
from St. Louis to assist this mob (p. 129). While this 
may have been true, I think it was never proved that any 
help came to the ruffians of Alton from that source. The 
fast-growing towns of the West had, all of them, an 
abundant influx of the class of roughs; especially were 
the river towns so afflicted. Alton had vile men enough 
of her own for such deeds, especially when merchants of 
Second Street, doctors, and lawyers, and even such minis- 
ters of the gospel (heaven save the mark!) as John 
Hogan and Charles Howard either egged on the mob, 
or were, at best, coldly indifferent. 

We are told (pp. 133, 135), that a removal of the Obser- 
ver to Ouincy was suggested. The Anti-Slavery men of 
that City, aided by those who determined to have law and 
order prevail, had a struggle with the mob-element about 
this very time, in which they won the victor}', through the 
stern determination of a few men, foremost among whom 
was Joseph T. Holmes, afterward a Congregational minis- 
ter. Once, some of the mob learned where arms of the 
Anti-Slavery men were stored and liable to be captured 
by a sudden movement; at the same time, Mr. Hohnes 
learned that they had such knowledge; he had no time 
to call assistance, but went at once to the spot. He had 
barely reached it when some of the mob arrived. Mr. 
Holmes was standing on the movable plank in the floor, 
over the guns, with arms folded, and facing the door. 
Each successive mobite departed ; and one of them said, 
narrating their failure, that "Holmes was there, and looked 
as if he would as soon shoot a fellow as not." The years 
I&36 and 1837 were the special era of mobs in the United 
States; and but few places were blest with a Holmes. 

Mr. Tanner's fifteenth chapter relates briefly the history 
of the Anti-Slavery convention, held at Upper-Alton, in 
October. Through the medium of the Observer a call was 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY., 219 

issued for the convention, signed by fifty-six gentlemen of 
Quincy; forty-two of Galesburg; thirty-two of Jackson- 
ville; twenty-three of the Altons; twenty of Springfield; 
and seventy-two others in other places. There were no 
signers south of Alton, and none north of Hennepin. The 
call was for "a meeting of the friends of the slave and of 
free-discussion." It stated that the convention should 
consist of those " who believe that the system of American 
slavery is sinful and ought to be immediately abandoned." 
Mr. Lovejoy added a special appeal to the friends of free- 
discussion and of the right of free-speech to show, by their 
zeal, that they appreciated the crisis. 

The Convention assembled at the Presbyterian Church, 
in Upper-Alton, Thursday, October 26th, at 2 p.m., and 
was called to order by Mr. Lovejoy. On his motion, Rev. 
Dr. Gideon Blackburn, a venerable clergyman, was made 
chairman; and Rev. F. W. Graves, of Lower-Alton, secre- 
tary. The official record says, "In consequence of the 
intrusion of a number of disorderly persons, the convention 
did not organize during the afternoon." This brief state- 
ment covers a curious proceeding, which I witnessed. 
When the house was opened and the delegates took their 
seats, along with them came Usher F. Linder, whose real 
character and position are shown in the sixteenth and 
seventeenth chapters, and in the appendix, page 186, Alex- 
ander Botkin, whose bloated form and face showed his 
special devotions, and others of the baser sort. These 
began to interrupt the meeting by noise and by making 
motions on its business. Col. Botkin was the first to con- 
ceive the idea of capturing the convention by adopting the 
doctrines of the call ; and while the real Abolitionists were 
desirous to adopt some declaration precise enough to 
exclude the intruders, he insisted on adhesion to the call 
and claimed that he had a right to a seat as a member. 
Linder soon saw the advantage of this move, and fell in 



220 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

with it; and over two hours were spent in a profitless 
wrangle. It was during this time that I saw Linder shake 
his fist, insultingly, in the face of Mr. Lovejoy, within about 
two feet of him. Botkin and Linder were almost constantly 
on their feet, jumping up at every opportunity. 

After a motion to adjourn was carried, and the house was 
cleared, Linder, then attorney-general of Illinois, mounted 
a wood-pile near the church and began a furious tirade 
against the Yankees, meaning Northern and Eastern peo- 
ple, generally. He spoke of the new things they were 
introducing, their home-missionaries, their sunday-schools, 
their Abolitionism, their temperance societies, — and just at 
that moment he remembered that within a few days, just 
after a notably disgraceful fit of drunkenness, he had been 
induced to sign the total-abstinence pledge. Instantly 
correcting himself, he changed his tone and said, "But, by 
the way, gentlemen, temperance is a very good thing;" 
and for two or three minutes he made, to his rowdies, a 
fair temperance speech; and then he resumed his abuse of 
Yankees in general, Abolitionists in particular, and Mr. 
Lovejoy specially. 

Next day, the chairman declared the call to be the basis 
of the organization. Immediately the Botkin party began 
to enroll their names. The record shows thirty-two legiti- 
mate members from Alton and vicinity, fifty-two from 
fourteen other counties of Illinois, and one from Wiscon- 
sin, making a total of eighty-five, some of whom were not 
in at first. The first vote that tested the strength of the 
parties was on the choice of president: seventy-three votes 
were cast for Dr. Blackburn, and fifty-two for Dr. Thomas 
M. Hope, a man who afterward, if common report was true, 
claimed the honor of having killed Mr. Lovejoy. And 
while this business was in progress, the mob-party was 
enrolling men as fast as possible, and drumming up recruits. 
In the entry of the church stood a trifling fellow, named 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. <22I 

Arthur Jourdon, who accosted everyone who came in, thus: 
"Join the convention? Botkin and all our men are joining." 
Without a word more, names were taken; and at the third 
vote, on the election of the assistant-secretary, the mob 
had the majority, electing William Carr, the leader of the 
mob of November 7th. The published roll of names shows 
a list of one hundred and seven intruders, who thus, by 
falsehood, put themselves into the convention. I happen 
to know that the name of James H. Wilson is wron^^ly so 
enrolled, as he was an Anti-Slavery man; but not being 
known as such to the officers, he was supposed to be one 
of the mob. As I look over the roll and recall the stand- 
ing of a large number of these intruders, I am even yet 
surprised at their joining in this trick. All of them desired 
to defeat the Convention; but it would have pleased them 
better to have it done by violence, or to look on approv- 
ingly while others did it. Among the names I see promi- 
nent politicians and officers, as Cyrus Edwards, afterward 
Whig candidate for governor; Rev. (!) John Hogan, I. B. 
Randle, O. M. Adams, George Smith, U. F. Linder, S, W. 
Robbins, Dr. Halderman, and others, some of whom, in later 
time, became RepublTcans in politics, and helped to over- 
throw slavery. The names of seven out of the ten who 
were indicted for the riot, ending in the death of Mr. Love- 
joy, are in this list. 

After the election of Mr. Carr, the convention was fully 
in the hands of the intruders. A communication from 
the Trustees of the Church, objecting to the use of the 
building for any one-sided discussion of the question of 
Slavery, played into the hands of the mob, and was loudly 
cheered by their side of the house.* The chair appointed 
a committee to report business for the convention, con- 

* The Trustees were true men; but, thinking only of the benefit of free dis- 
cussion, they forgot that a meeting to form a society for a specific purpose 
must not be a debating club. 



222 THE MARTYRDOM OF LQVEJOY. 

sisting of Rev. Edward Beecher, Rev. Asa Turner, and U. 
F. Linder, who was quite moderate in his demeanor now. 
In the afternoon, these reported: Linder's resolutions 
were at once taken up, discussed and adopted. Did space 
permit, I would copy these resolutions, to show how com- 
pletely foreign to the sentiment of the call they are, depre- 
cating the immediate Abolition of Slavery, which the call 
approved. Nevertheless, one resolution declares "That we 
will use all lawful means to exterminate Slavery within 
the United States." It is reasonably to be doubted 
whether a single one of these gentlemen, many of whom 
I knew well, ever uttered a word against Slavery after- 
ward, until Republican politics or the civil war opened 
their mouths. 

The disappointed Abolitionists met next day in a pri- 
vate house, where no blundering trustees could control 
their action. While the meeting was held in Mr. Hurl- 
but's house, the mob-party were on hand, ready to inter- 
rupt again; but the civil authorities of Upper-Alton had 
met the night before and. chosen good men and true to the 
number of forty, if I remember rightly, and sworn them 
m as special constables. I remember seeing one of the 
mob-party at a street corner, blustering and swaggering 
and threatening; Mr. Enoch Long and other citizens told 
him he mustn't behave so in that town; and he presently 
departed, with the air of a muzzled bull-dog. 

The Anti-Slavery Society was formed with the follow- 
ing officers: Elihu Wolcott,* Jacksonville, President- 
Rev. Hubbell Loomis,* U. Alton, H. H. Snow * Quincy 

Thomas Powell. , Thomas Gait, Sangamon County' 

Aaron Russell,* Peoria, Vice Presidents; George Kimball * 
Charles W. Hunter,* James Mansfield, J. S. Clark Julius 
A. Willard, of the Altons, and Rufus Brown, Willard 
Keys,* Joseph T. Holmes, Rev. Asa Turner, Dr. Richard 
Eells/ Ezra Fisher, and Rev. Wm. Kirby,* of Ouincy and 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LQVEJOV. 223 

vicinity, Board of Managers ; Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy,* 
Rev. f. B. Hurlbut, Maj. Chas. W. Hunter,* and Julius A. 
Willard, Executive Committee ; E. P. Lovejoy,* Correspond- 
ing Secretary; T. B. Hurlbut, Recording Secretary ; P. B. 
Whipple, Treasurer; Samuel E. Moore,* Auditor. Of 
these, all marked * are known to be dead; "Father" Loomis 
died December 15, 1872, at the age of ninety-seven and a 
half years; only Julius A. Willard, my father, aged eighty- 
eight. Rev. Asa Turner, of about the same age, and Rev. 
Thaddeus B. Hurlbut, aged seventy-nine, are known to be 
living. 

The Alton Telegraph published the proceedings of the 
mob-convention, without any narration of the facts, under 
the heading "Illinois Abolition Convention." 

The meeting of October 30th, (p. 136) was notable as 
showing the effect of a few determined and organized men 
upon the mob. As the company were going to their hall 
after Mr. Beecher's sermon, they were interrupted by a 
crowd of the mob; but a collision between the head of a 
mobite and the breech of a gun in the hands of Moses G. 
Atwood was sufficient to clear the way. Another gang 
tried to waylay Mr. Lovejoy, who had to walk nearly a 
mile to his home; but he had exchanged his wide-brimmed 
white hat for a cap, and passed unrecognized. Then his 
house was attacked; but when he appeared with a rifle in 
hand, the gang fled. It was frequently thought best to 
defend Mr. Lovejoy 's house; a company from Upper- Al- 
ton went down several times; and more than once I saw 
to it that my father's shot-gun was in order for use in this 
war, with plenty of ammunition. 

Mr. Tanner's chapter XVIII narrates the final catastro- 
phe in this struggle. The fourth press was landed on the 
night of November 6th, from the steamer Missouri Fulton, 
whose captain (I wish I knew his name) had agreed to 
land the press at midnight, even if he should have to lay 



224 I'^ll^ .MAKTVRDOM OF I OVEJOY. 

his boat by for a wliile to do so. A horn, blown by some 
party unk-nown, seemed to be sii^nal from the mob, but 
none of them appeared. Mayor Krum was rather unwill- 
ingly present, a second messenger being necessary to se- 
cure the fulfillment of his promise to be present. His con- 
duct throughout shows his imbecility, and the worthless- 
ness of a Democratic party magistrate. Wishing to please 
the honest men and to do his duty, he dared not offend his 
constituents who were on the other side. 

The picture of the building given in this volume needs 
some explanation and corrections. It is all out of propor- 
tion, as any one may see by comparing the ladder and the 
man on it, with the building. The ladder is at the north 
end of the building. The other or south end fronts the 
Mississippi River, M'hich here flows nearly east. At the 
north end of the building the ground was so much higher 
than at the other that the buildings appeared on the north 
to be three stories high, but four stories hiL;h at the other 
end. The building nearest the spectator in the picture is 
on the west side; and a door, not shown in the picture, 
opened from the basement story on that side. The west- 
ern building was about one hundred feet long, more, not 
less; the eastern building was a little shorter. On the 
north the ground rose rapidly, so that the cutting out of a 
narrow street on the north had left a high bank on which 
men could stand on a level with the second and even the 
third of the stories of the north end. The mob made its 
appearance at the south end, knocked and hailed the store. 
Mr. Oilman answering from the upper door, William Carr, 
one of the secretaries of the false Anti-Slavery convention, 
demanded the press, presenting a pistol at Mr. Oilman. 
The active attack began with volleys of stones, breaking 
windows on the north end, and by the firing of two guns. 
Messrs. Edward Kea'ring (a lawyer) and Mr. Henry H. 
West (merchant and brother-in-law of John Hogan) had 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 225 

previously been informed by leaders of the mob of their 
intention to destroy the press; and \\\qsq gaitlaucii, instead 
of busying themselves to rouse the citizens to stop the 
riot, became the envoys of the mob, asked to see Mr. Gil- 
man, and were admitted to the building-. Through them 
the mob learned that there were less than twenty men in 
the buildings. The forbearance of the men inside em- 
boldened the mob. I have long been accustomed to say 
that it was a pity that Henry Tanner was not commander 
that night in place of the aged, mild, and courteous Dea- 
con Enoch Long. The crisis required either vigorous 
fighting and a Napoleonic movement upon the enemy, or 
Quaker non-resistance. The half-way policy which was 
adopted produced its natural unhappy results. 

The town was alarmed meantime, as much as could be: 
it was, and is, a scattering place, built irregularly on steep 
hills. Less than half a mile from the scene of action was 
the only church with a bell, the Presbyterian: Mrs. Graves, 
the wife of the pastor, herself opened the church, and 
little, but brave woman as she was, tolled the bell a long 
time; but no help was given to the besieged, or to the 
vacillating, impotent mayor. There was constant com- 
munication between the inside and the outside of the 
besieged warehouse by the envoys of the mob, the mayor 
himself repeatedly acting as such, and Mr. West flitting 
in and out to report the progress of the mob. The Memoir 
of E. P. Lovejoy says that S. W. Robbins, Justice of the 
Peace! was once an envoy of the mob with the mayor. 

Mr. Tanner tells little of what went on inside the build- 
ing. He, and some one or two others, know who fired the 
shot that killed Lyman Bishop; but no one tells us. Of 
course it was at once said that Bishop was a harmless 
spectator; I heard Josiah Nutter, an indicted mobite, say 
so; but who ever aimed at him knew what he was about; 
and beside, Mr. H. H. West testified in court, that those 

15 



226 THE MARTYRDOM OP^ LOVFJOY. 

who carried Bishop off (they took him as they might have 
carried a hog, one by each Hmb) said that one of their 
men was hurt; and Mr. Reuben D. Farley told me that he 
examined the body, and found that the shot entered at 
the shoulder, and passed through him lengthwise, which 
shows that he was stooping to pick up a stone, and not 
standing to look on. 

As these notes do not pass under Mr. Tanner's eye 
before the printing, I shall tell one anecdote of his action 
in the warehouse, which will show the coolness and cour- 
age of himself and of others in that sad strait. Mr. 
Reuben Gerry was in the loft of the western building, 
against which the ladder was afterward put; and there was 
stored a lot of stone-ware, jugs and jars. Mr. Gerry 
began to throw out upon the heads of the assaulting mob 
some of the stones they had thrown in through the 
windows, and some of the jugs and jars. There was no 
communication between this loft or upper story and the 
other, in which Mr. Tanner was posted with a rifle. Mr. 
Gerry's proceedings raised a yell among the mob that was 
trying to force the door below, and a cry arose, "Shoot 
that fellow!" Mr. Gerry had opened the door of his loft, 
and could be seen as he came forward now and then. A 
man went upon the bank across the street, which I men- 
tioned above, and tried to get sight of Gerry to shoot him. 
Mr. Tanner immediately thrust his rifle through the sash- 
door of the other loft, and took aim at the fellow, deter- 
mined to drop him if he seemed to get aim at Mr. Gerry. 
Mr. Tanner knew the man well, for it was a bright moon- 
light night : the same man afterward boasted that he had 
shot Mr. Lovejoy. Whenever he drew up to aim at Mr. 
Gerry, Mr. Tanner would draw sight upon him, sparing 
his life every time, until he gave up the attempt, because 
Mr. Gerry ceased his sport. The man who told me this, 
Mr. J. Norman Brown, said that he saw Mr. Tanner so 



} 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 227 

doing; that he had come in with Mr. H. H. West from 
curiosity, and thereafter staid in to help the defenders, 
and shared their risk when they went out; "for," said he 
to me, "men of that sort, so considerate, but so deter- 
mined, I could stand by." Mr. Tanner told me that 
James Morse, Jr., and Mr. Noble, came up and saw him 
so doing, but is very positive that Mr. Brown did not 
come up there, and was not in the building. It seems to 
me more likely that Mr. Tanner, under such circumstances, 
failed to notice the stranger, or forgot him afterwards, 
than that Mr. Brown, whom I knew in Upper-Alton, and 
who bore a good reputation, should have told me a false- 
hood. 

Mr. Tanner does not mention that twice a party went 
out to shoot at the man on the ladder who was firing the 
building. The roof did not burn readily, and as the man 
was trying to kindle the fire, some four or five persons 
went out at the south door, hurried to the south-west 
angle of the building (miscalled in the Memoir of Lovejoy 
the south-east), and fired at him. Mr. Lovejoy and Mr. 
Weller were shot on their venturing out a second time, by 
an ambush placed behind some lumber which was piled 
on the levee. Mr. Lovejoy had strength to run into the 
building, and upstairs, before he fell. Mr. Weller was 
saved by Mr. Geo. H. Whitney, a druggist, my father's 
partner in business, who knew how to apply a tourniquet. 
How near they came to killing the man on the ladder has 
never been told; but I knew a youth of some fifteen years 
of age, named Okey, who had a scar over one eyebrow, 
who said he received the hurt from a shot while he was 
going up that ladder; but his feeling of anger was not at 
the man who shot him : on the other hand, he said that if 
there was another mob, he would go into it to shoot Dr. 
Hope, who had persuaded him to go up the ladder. 

When Mr. Lovejoy was killed, Mr. Harned insisted on 



228 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

telling the mob, hoping that they would go away: he put 
his head out of a scuttle and told the fact in a stentorian, 
voice, and received in reply a volley of bullets. Nutter,, 
one of the mob, said, telling a sympathizing crowd of the 
night's work, "Ole Harned stuck out his head and told us 
that Lovejoy was dead." But the mob was now blood- 
thirsty. Mr. Roff determined to go out and secure terms of 
surrender; as soon as he put one foot out of doors he was 
wounded in the ankle. Finally, Mr. West came to the 
north door and urged the defenders to surrender the press: 
if they would do so, the "boys" would put out the fire, 
and allow them to go unhurt. The arms being secreted, 
the defenders left the house, but were fired upon at once 
by the mob, whose bullets, fired from higher ground, 
passed harmlessly over them. They ran for life till pur- 
suit ceased. It was at this time, I think, that a man, 
pursuing Mr. Tanner, fired at him on State Street, finding 
that Mr. Tanner was out-running him: the bullet cut Mr. 
Tanner's coat on one shoulder. He told my father that 
he never knew before why the Lord made him so short: 
if he had been larger, he would have been killed. As to 
the fire on the roof of the warehouse, none of the mob 
were ready to keep their promise to put it out when the 
house was surrendered; I heard that Mr. West had to put 
it out with his own hands. 

When Mr. Lovejoy's corpse was taken home in the 
morning, Dr. Beall, who subsequently perished in a brawl 
in Texas, seeing it borne by, said, "If I only had a fife, 
I'd play the Dead March for him." 

Mr. Tanner gives on page i66, in a foot-note, the names 
of the defenders of the warehouse: had the assault been 
foreseen, not twenty, but fifty or sixty names would have 
been in the roll. I took much pains at the time to make 
up a list, and long supposed that I had the only one in 
existence. I conversed with several who w^ere there, and 



I 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 229 

asked them to correct my roll. I had the impression that 
I talked with Mr. Tanner himself, as I certainly did with 
Mr. Enoch Long, Mr. Geo. H. Whitney, Mr. Hurlbut, Mr. 
Samuel J. Thompson, Mr. Edward Breath, and Mr. Reu- 
ben D. Farley. My list differed from Mr. Tanner's in two 
or three particulars. I left out the name of George T. 
Brown, for he left the building early in the night and 
could not return: he was a young man then about sixteen 
or seventeen years old. I had not the name of Mr. J. C. 
Woods, who was not known to me; he was a blacksmith, 
and died about 1851, at Alton. Mr. H. D. Davis is un- 
known to me. My list, therefore, did not include these. 
It includes two others not named by Mr. Tanner, viz.: Mr. 
Mr. Reuben D. Farley, now living in Jerseyville, 111., who 
talked with me about his being there, in the presence of 
Mr. Whitney, who was there. And next, Mr. J. Norman 
Brown, who was not in originally, but chose to stay, as I 
have told above. I am sure that both these persons were 
there as they told me: Mr. Tanner is sure they were not 
there: in my mind, the testimony of those who saw them 
prevails over his who did not. 

Mr. Royal Weller afterward married the widow of Mr. 
Lovejoy. Toward the close of his life he was for a time 
insane, but recovered. When Dr. Thomas M. Hope, after- 
ward Democratic candidate for Congress, came in with the 
mob, he wanted to extract the ball from Mr. Weller's leg; 
but he said he would rather die than have help from one 
of the murderous mob. Mr. Amos B. Rofif, a stove-dealer, 
removed to St. Louis. Mr. Harned left Alton and went 
upon a farm, where he died. Mr. Reuben Gerry and Mr. 
George H. W'alworth were partners as Gerry & Walworth. 
Mr. James Morse died in 1865. Mr. Edward Breath was 
a printer, (as mentioned in the note to page 15), and died 
in Syria or Persia, as a missionary. Mr. Whitney was of 
the firm of Willard & Whitney: he received a ball that 



230 thp: martyrdom of lovejoy. 

night in his clothing, of which he was ignorant at the time. 
Mr. Noble was of the firm of Van Antwerp & Noble. 
Five, Messrs. Long, Thompson, Hurlbut, Loomis, and 
Brown, were from Upper -Alton. Mr. Long, a much- 
esteemed citizen, must be over ninety years of age, by this 
time: he then seemed to me past middle age. Mr. Sam'l 
J. Thompson chose not to leave the building with the 
others, and, while intending to be out of the way, wandered 
into the room where the box containing the press was, and 
sat down upon it. When the ruffians offered to throw him 
out of the upper door, he answered they could do it, but 
whoever should try it would go with him. He was very 
strong and as active as a cat, and would have made good 
his promise. He afterward went to Mobile, Ala., and soon 
died there, I think in 1840. I knew his widow. Rev. Mr. 
Hurlbut still lives at Upper-Alton; a year ago, when he 
was at the advanced age of seventy-eight, he was so brave 
as to undergo an operation for cataract. Mr. David Burt 
Loomis, son of the Rev. Hubbell Loomis, mentioned above, 
was a salesman in the store of Godfrey & Oilman, and used 
his gun, loaded with buckshot, again and again. Mr. 
Daniel F. Randle was a clerk in the house of Flagg & 
North. Mr. Reuben D. Farley was, like Thompson and 
J. Norman Brown, a carpenter, and afterward studied and 
practised medicine. Messrs. Tanner and Gilman speak for 
themselves in these pages: both are still active, busy, and 
useful men. 

I attended the first part of the trial of the twelve who 
were indicted as stated on page 188. I remember how a 
certain J. S. McFarland, who was as notorious a mobite as 
Dr. Hope himself, tried to get on the jury, stepping into 
the bailiff's way when he had to summon talesmen. He 
professed to have no opinion or prejudice in the case, but 
was peremptorily challenged. Usher F. Linder fairly 
pushed himself into the prosecution, though Mr. F. B. 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 23 1 

Murdock, the city attorney, said he had no occasion for 
his help, and was manifestly unwilling to be joined with 
him. The whole proceeding was so manifestly a farce that 
some of the parties indicted never received any notice of 
the proceeding against them. The fact was, that the pro- 
slavery part of the grand jury would find no indictment 
against Carr, Hope, and that gang, unless the other mem- 
bers would agree in finding the absurd one against Mr. 
•Oilman and other defenders. 

It is not known who fired the fatal shot or shots that 
slew Mr. Lovejoy. Dr. Hope and Dr. Beall were equally 
ready to boast of it. It was believed by many that James 
M. Rock, a drayman, who subsequently was sentenced for 
some violent crime to the Ohio State Penitentiary, fired 
the shot. It soon ceased to a matter of boasting, as the 
contempt and hatred of mankind began to tell upon those 
who had tried to slay the right of free-speech. The wide- 
spread and deep indignation that stirred myriads of hearts 
throughout the land did more to drive nails into the coffin 
of Slavery than Mr. Lovejoy could have done in a long 
life. This was the battle of Concord in the great Anti- 
Slavery Revolutionary War. From that day, the mob- 
spirit waned, and slavery lost contest after contest, till the 
mighty North sent its armies to slay Treason and Slavery 
and give them a common grave. 

Mr. Tanner has not mentioned the effect which this 
summer of violence and autumn of murder had upon the 
fortunes of the City of Alton. With certain advantages of 
position, and with the superiority that should naturally 
belong to a city in a free-state, it was trying to rival the 
much older City of St. Louis. The panic and commercial 
failures of 1837 struck it a hard blow; but the "Lovejoy 
Riots" dealt it a well-nigh fatal one. Its righteous men, 
its sixty brave defenders of the right were forgotten, when 
men thought of Hogan and Howard and Hope, of Beall 



232 THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 

and Carr and Linder. The warehouses that had been built 
in its youth of enterprise were soon deserted and sold for 
tenths or twentieths of their cost. Many of the Anti- 
Slavery men moved away. A store which Mr. Tanner had 
built at a cost of over $25,000, and sold for less than half 
that sum, was offered him again for $2000. 

The following extracts, from newspapers of the time, 
were unjustly severe, there is no doubt; but they serve ta 
show what was then thought and said of Alton, and how 
the riots, told of in this book, helped to sink it and destroy 
the hopes of its better citizens, who struggled vainly against 
such ill fame: 

"The theatre of murders, of bloody and outrageous 
deeds of infamy has been transferred from Vicksburg to 
Alton. Let this place be forever remembered — let its 
name be written in the catalogue of all that is execrable — ■ 
let the emigrant avoid it as he values his liberty — let him 
pass by on the other side of this Sodom of the West, lest 
if he should tarry in it, the wrath of insulted heaven in fire 
and water should descend and destroy the place with its 
wicked, pusillanimous and shameless inhabitants, who, like 
base cowards, permitted the murder of one of their fellow- 
citizens. There can be no excuse offered on their part."— 
Caledonian, Vt. 

"What freeman — who but a savage, or cold-hearted 
murderer would now go to Alton.? Meanness, infamy, and 
guilt are attached to the very name. Hereafter, when a. 
criminal is considered too base for any known punishment, 
it will be said of him — ' he ought to be banished to Alton,*" 
or, ' he ought to be banished to a place as vile and infa- 
mous as Alton' — a place where freedom is disowned — 
where the defenders of freedom are murdered by the con- 
sent of the inhabitants — where the inhabitants themselves 
are land-pirates — where the Attorney-General, the repre- 



THE MARTYRDOM OF LOVEJOY. 233 

sentative of the State, instead of bringing criminals to 
judgment, encourages, spurs them on, to the perpetration of 
the foulest crimes, the basest murder; and the Mayor of 
the City sits as a judge-advocate for the mob." — Lynn 
Record, Mass. 

I disinter these fragments as a part of the history of the 
time, to show the obloquy that was poured out upon the 
City of Alton, and especially upon Linder and Krum. 
Mild men spoke less violently, but with as stern a reproba- 
tion. So long as that generation survived, the reputation 
of Alton could not be redeemed. While the cowardly 
men, and the violent men overpowered the better class, 
there was.no hope for it. The Alton Telegraph, the lead- 
ing paper, dared say nothing for freedom or right. Six 
years after Lovejoy's death, some of the same fellows ot 
the baser sort, seized a colored woman, whose right to 
freedom was about to be contested in the courts, and 
carried her over into Missouri, in a frail boat, making way 
among the floating winter ice, at the risk of their lives; I 
doubt whether any of the better people of Alton knew 
anything of it, even after it was done. 

But when the decisive struggle of the civil war came, 
the sons of those who had persecuted the prophets a 
quarter of a century before, took their places in the ranks 
to fight and die for liberty; and Alton sent her quota to 
sustain the grand cause for which Lovejoy had died: and 
of him, as of a later enemy of Slavery it might well 

be said — 

HIS SOUL IS MARCHING ON ! 

Chicago, Dec. 2^th, 1880. 



FERGUS' CHICAGO PUBLICATIONS. 



mSTOI^IC^VL. 



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delivered before the Chicago Lyceum, Jan. 21, 
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the Chicago Tribune in 1872. Price, 25 cents. 



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3. 

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ANn A SKETCH OF THE POTTAWATO- 
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AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

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REYNOLDS' HISTORY OF ILLINOIS. 

MY OWN TIME.S: Embracing also The History of My Life. By John Rkynoi.ds, 
Late CJovernor of Illinois, Member of Congress, State .'Senator, and Kepre.sentatiye, etc. 
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llQYOim]TiroEg: 



EMBRACING ALSO 



THE HISTORY OF MY LIFE. 



By JOHN REYNOLDS, 

Late Governor of Illinois, Member of Congress, Stati; Senator, and 
Representative, Etc., Etc. 



Wisdom is the great end of history.— Blair. 




CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

FERGUS PRINTING COMPANY, 

244-8 ILLINOIS STREET. 

1879. 



PUBLISHERS' ARGUMENT. 



No volume can scarcely be of greater interest and value than one 
tracing the early growth, and reciting the early history, of a Common- 
wealth or a Nation. It need not necessarily be a ponderous tome 
replete with those hard facts which seem to stand against one's vision 
liKe a great wall into which is cut the bare, cold records of accomplish- 
ment. It may be crudely told. It may be little and modest, and even 
to the great world quite unknown. But it should glow with the charm 
surrounding recitals of the every-day experience of those men whose 
lives are passed in molding the growth, character, and even destiny, of 
States or Countries, whose true history is thus brightened in detail and 
heightened by the fascination of reminiscence. 

For these reasons perhaps no work, written by any citizen of the 
West, ever deserved so wide a reading and preservation, and was yet 
so little known, as "Mv Own Times", or "Reynolds' History of 
Illinois'*, by the late Governor John Reynolds, which has been re- 
claimed from obscurity, and, with considerable correction and revision, 
is reproduced in the subjoined pages. 

Not only did "My Own Times" possess charming interest from the 
bl-int truthfulness of its author, "Old Ranger", as he was known 
throu-^hout the West in the earlier political days; from the honest fideli- 
ty with which the most trifling incident is related; in the picturesque 
grouping of personal experiences with profound events; in the fine 
blending of men, manners, and means that so strikingly predominate 
in periods of sectional infancy and the swift changes wrought by aggres- 
sive civilization; but a more important value obtains in its absolute his- 
torical worth. 

Governor Reynolds passed nearly half a century in most prominent 
public hfe. As a "Ranger" in 1813; as Judge Advocate in 1814; as 
an Illinois Supreme Court Judge; as a member of the Illinois General 
Assembly; as Governor of Illinois; as a Representative in Congress for 
seven years, and never absent from his seat during session; as Illinois 
Canal Commissioner; and finally, as Speaker of the Illinois House;— 
and all tliis from the early part of the present century until beyond its 
noon;— his strong, aggressive, manly nature and life were most power- 
ful factors in this period of wonderful transition to Illinois and the West. 

"My Own Times" thus became an epitome of those days, of their 
remarkable measures, of their marvelous changes, and a record of many 
of their great men. 



IV I'UUl.lSllERS' ARGUMENT. 

But brilliant and strong a man as was Governor Reynolds, he knew 
little of book-making; less, of book-selling. The manuscript of the 
work was taken to a little "job office" at Bellville, 111., in 1854-5. It 
is thought that but four hundred copies were issued. They were 
printed from a common hand-press, and the typography was a miracle 
of wretchedness. The result was, "My Own Times" remained un- 
known. 

One autumn-day in 1855, as Mr. D. B. Cooke, then Chicago's leading 
bookseller and publisher, was standing in the entrance to his establish- 
ment, a dray laden with shoe-boxes was backed against the curbing. 
Perched Upon the load sat a tall, gaunt, odd-looking individual who 
immediately alighted, strode into the store, and, with considerable pro- 
fanity, inquired for the proprietor. Making himself known he was in- 
formed in strong language that his visitor was no less than Governor 
Reynolds, and, in still stronger language, that he had written a book. 
The book would not sell. It must sell. He had boxed up every copy 
and brought them along. 

Mr. Cooke immediately gave his receipt for about three hundred and 
fifty copies of "My Own Times", and the emphatic author was driven 
away upon the trundling dray quite oblivious to the curious crowd his 
coming had attracted. 

On October 19, 1857, two years later, Chicago suffered from its then 
greatest conflagration. A very large amount of property was destroyed, 
and the lives of twenty-three firemen and prominent citizens were lost 
in their efforts to stay the flames. The publication-house referred to 
was also burned and with it nearly every existing copy of Governor 
Reynolds' work, but a trifling number having been sold. Chicago's 
great fire of 187 1 nearly completed the work of annihilating the original 
edition. Copies of the same were not to be found save at such prices 
as would cause the possibly remaining dozen, to realize a larger total 
sum than the entire Bellville edition would have brought when issued. 

The Chicago Historical Society, which is an indefatigable search- 
er after historical treasures and rare works, has not previously possessed 
a copy; and for such reasons as have been given, "My Own Times", 
to which has been added a very full and complete index, has been 
reproduced, it is hoped, in a much more attractive and lasting form, 
not only for the purpose of supplying the Chicago Historical Society 
and its members, but to assist in perpetuating the history of the great 
Commonwealth of Illinois, and the name of one whose public life has 
added no little strength and lustre to her great power and splendor. 



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